The Volkswagen Group’s Czech brand Skoda will give the public its first taste of the first all-electric Octavia in six months, when a wagon concept will preview the battery-powered cousin to the VW Golf.
As reported by Autocar, Skoda CEO Klaus Zellmer has confirmed the concept car will be unveiled at the Munich motor show in September, though it won’t be a full reveal of the Octavia EV.
Instead, Skoda will use the European show to preview the design language of its future electric mid-sized car, which is currently sold in liftback and wagon forms, though only the replacement for the latter is expected to be shown off.
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In October last year, Skoda delayed the planned launch of the electric Octavia due to cooling demand for electric vehicles (EVs).
“To be totally honest, with the slowdown of the transformation into battery-electric vehicles, we’re revisiting that [EV timeline],” Mr Zellmer said at the time.
“We’re checking the sequence of those cars. The cadence now is we’ve had the Enyaq Coupe, the Elroq, the next one is the Epiq, and the next one down the line will be the SUV, the 7S you’ve seen the concept car of.
“After that – it could be 2027, 2028 – we’re aiming for an Octavia estate.”
We’ve previously seen the shape of the electric Octavia, when Skoda teased six concept cars in 2023, all of which were planned to launch by 2026.
The delay to 2027 or 2028 places the launch of the electric Octavia wagon closer to the on-sale date of the ninth-generation Volkswagen Golf, which is now reportedly due in 2028.
Volkswagen has traditionally launched new Golf models before its Octavia cousin follows, with the two models sharing the same underpinnings for the past handful of generations.
The ninth-generation (Mk9) Golf is set to become an electric-only model, and both it and the electric Octavia will be based on the German auto giant’s upcoming Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), rather than the existing MEB platform which underpins current Volkswagen ID. models.
Mr Zellmer told Autocar the electric Octavia was originally due to be an MEB model, but basing it on SSP will offer “more performance and be more cost-efficient”.
Skoda is soon set to begin an EV onslaught globally with a host of new or refreshed models.
These included the Elroq (unveiled last year), facelifts for the Enyaq and Enyaq Coupe, the Epiq (a concept of which was subsequently revealed this year), and a production version of the 7S Concept with seven seats.
Currently, Skoda offers just one EV in Australia: the pre-facelifted Enyaq Coupe.
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