Skoda teases new all-electric SUV

Skoda has announced a new design language – and issued a teaser for how it could apply to a forthcoming all-electric SUV.

At the Czech brand’s annual press conference, outgoing CEO Thomas Schäfer reported a tough second half of 2021 as the global semiconductor crisis hit Skoda’s manufacturing. But the company still reported an improved margin on sales of 6.1 per cent, and made over a billion euros of profit – up from €756m in 2020.

Schäfer revealed that Skoda is targeting further modernisation of its brand in 2022, and said that a new design language – called ‘modern solid’ – will be at the heart of it. “You will soon see a wow moment for our competitors and our customers,” he said.

The speech was accompanied by a slide showing a blurred image of an SUV – but with the front area of the car in focus, revealing that it has a flush grille area typical of an electric vehicle. It is likely that the model concerned is a concept designed to preview the new language, but Skoda has a history of not issuing any show cars that do not closely represent final production models.

It’s hard to judge the scale of the vehicle in the image, but based on likely wheel size and its wheelbase, it could be a strong hint at Skoda’s next MEB car – likely to be a slightly smaller SUV than the Enyaq. Schäfer reiterated during his conference remarks that his team already has “three more EVs smaller than Enyaq” lined up – although at least one of these is thought to be a much smaller car, based the cheaper MEB Entry platform and not likely to appear before 2025 or even 2026.