“It is an evolution,” says Zellmer. “We respect customers’ preferences and cater for customer preferences, not an ideology. Of course we need to stay CO2 – it’s a regulation we will adhere to, and we are on a good trajectory to meet CO2 compliance in the EU.
But he adds: “When in 2019 the forecasts were fixed on what the trajectory to a CO2 neutral automotive industry had to be, I think we were too ambitious. I hear a lot about the responsibility being on car manufacturers. However, at the end of the day consumers make their choices, so if you look at the trajectory we have achieved so far, to stay with 2035 as the stop for ICE technology in new cars, it’s probably over-ambitious. And if you see something you have got wrong in your forecast then you have to correct it, and this is what we ask for as a car industry, and as VW Group. We need to revisit assumptions about when an end to combustion technology in new cars is still reachable .” Zellmer isn’t the first car boss to say this, but when the company is this successful it carries more weight.
Also on the future, there is a subject close to the heart, one suspects, of the UK reader and enthusiast: the estate car. Skoda is an SUV/crossover builder as much as the next car maker, but still, it has form. “We have had many people asking us about the future of the sedan, limousine, combi [estate] segment,” says Zellmer, “especially from the UK.
“This is a situation that is very specific for Skoda, because since 2016, despite the fact that the typical limousine/estate/sedan-shaped cars are actually on a downward trend [many car makers have ditched their large estates , we are on an upward trend with Octavia, especially combis, and the Superb combi. Actually since the most recent generation, we have sold over three million Octavia combis and over 600,000 Superb combis. We are the most relevant player in the segment, and these cars make up 20% of our overall sales volume.”
Skoda most recently made headlines with the Vision O concept estate car. “That’s clearly an evolutionary step of our Modern Solid design language, a car that is clearly identifiable with that kind of segment,” says Zellmer. But its path to production won’t be straightforward.
“We have a challenge there, because the typical range of combi drivers, mostly commercially engaged with these cars, is 30,000-40,000km a year,” he explains. “So with the Vision O we have got to go onto the platform after the MEB platform, and that new platform will then of course offer electrified drivetrains, which could be purely electrified, but they could also be any other shape or form: PHEV, range extender or whatever.
