Skoda CEO underlines an 'all-electric future' for company

With electrification steadily gaining momentum in the automotive industry, Skoda too now wants to fully concentrate on developing electric vehicles. The company's CEO Thomas Schäfer said in a recent interview with Autogazette that the company will focus more on delivering all-electric vehicles rather than going for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).

He also mentioned that the brand has high hopes for its all-electric Enyaq iV model. The electric vehicle currently has more than 70,000 orders in place which the CEO admits has exceeded the brand’s expectations and hence they have decided to focus on EVs more. “Of course, the PHEV is important for fleets, which is why we are also making such an offer for the Octavia and Superb, but other vehicles will not follow suit. It doesn’t make sense to us. Our future is the pure electric car," he said. Currently, Skoda is working its way through the supply chain shortages to deliver as many of the 70,000 Enyaqs this year.

Schäfer also said that despite the semiconductor shortage that has gripped the automotive industry like never before, the company was able to sell over one million cars last year. He, however, informed that the brand may lose around 10,000 cars off its assembly line due to the chip shortage. He remains bullish that the company can still have a strong fourth quarter and can achieve its delivery target with its Enyaq iV electric car.

In 2019, Skoda developed an electric model called the Citigo iV, however, the brand pulled the plug from the entire model line including the ICE version. This was followed by the introduction of Enyaq iV which is based on Volkswagen's MEB platform. This fully electric crossover later was joined by PHEV versions of Skoda Superb and Octavia.