Zellmer attributed the shortfall in electric car sales to various factors, including failings in the charging infrastructure, range anxiety, the cost of electricity and the significantly higher price of EVs.
Indeed, Skoda marketing boss Martin Jahn conceded that the company is sacrificing its profit margin on the new Elroq to ensure it is priced at a level to attract strong sales – and therefore allow Skoda to meet its CO2 emissions targets for 2025.
“I admit that this is not the most profitable car in our line-up, and we just have to work on the costs, especially on the battery costs, to make the electric cars more profitable in the future,” said Jahn.
Zellmer also pointed to the lack of variety in bodystyles as a barrier to growing EV sales. He said: “I’ve always said people always buy cars for the least probable cause they need them for. So they buy a combi [estate] because they were at one point in time at Ikea, they had to put this huge box of a wardrobe in the car, so now they need a combi again.
“[Like] with range anxiety, this is totally emotional – it’s not rational. Who exceeds a range of 350 miles on a regular basis? And even if you do, you do one charging stop in between, get the car down to 30%, charge it back to 60%, it takes you 15 or less minutes and off you go. It’s not a problem.
“It’s changing the habits, but people still find it difficult to change their behaviour towards battery-electric vehicles so we need to give people time to be ready for that, and this is why we offer alternatives.”
