Skoda has confirmed that its Fabia and Scala small cars and the Kamiq baby SUV have received a stay of execution and will remain in the Czech brand’s line-up until 2030, as a result of the slowdown in demand for electric cars.
“We have just decided that we will have those cars in our line-up until the end of the decade,” Skoda CEO Klaus Zellmer told Auto Express. “If you had asked me a year ago, we would have said: ‘No, we’re phasing them out by 2027’. But since we see consumers being very open to driving these cars, we have decided to give them until the end of the decade.”
That doesn’t mean there will be new generations of any of the trio, but two rounds of cosmetic and tech facelifts to keep the cars competitive are possible.
“The current legislation suggests that by 2035 it won’t be possible to register internal combustion engines any more, so you have to decide whether to invest huge amounts or whether you do a gradual update, and the latter is what we’re doing,” Zellman continued.
Skoda’s boss also said the longer range of the latest Kodiaq plug-in hybrid is increasing the popularity of the petrol-electric model. “With an electric range of more than 100 kilometres [62 miles], it’s worth recharging the battery; with less than 50km [31 miles] people were debating whether it was worth it,” he explained.
“If you look at the CO2 emissions now, this is as close as we get to battery electric vehicles. It’s 10g/km [9-12g/km in the UK], so it makes sense from a legislative point of view, from a customer sentiment point of view, and range anxiety doesn’t play a role because you have the internal combustion engine to bridge long distances the way you’re used to.”
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