Waiting for a new Skoda Citigo? It could be a long one

Skoda currently has no plans to launch an electric car smaller than the all-new Epiq crossover that is arriving this summer, ruling out a successor for the little Skoda Citigo despite the European Union’s push for more small affordable EVs. 

The Epiq is expected to cost from around £25,000, which would already put it among the most affordable electric cars on sale. What’s more, it will almost match the starting price of its petrol-powered equivalent, the Skoda Kamiq, although you can save more than £4,000 on one through our Buy A Car service.

Even so, when asked if the brand had any intentions of making an even cheaper and smaller EV – especially following the EU’s proposal for a new class of cars just like this – Skoda’s board member for sales and marketing Martin Jahn told Auto Express: “We do not see a way how to produce such a car profitably, so we do not have any immediate plans for a smaller electric car than the Epiq.”

This is despite Volkswagen working on an electric city car that’s due to arrive next year, based on its ID. Every1 concept, which could cost as little as £17,000. Jahn added: “Again the challenge is the profitability, as even with the current electric cars it's difficult to make profit. 

“I think it's well known that electric cars in general have much lower profitability than combustion-engine cars, and that's true for 99 per cent of car makers.”

Jahn’s opinion tallies with comments made to Auto Express by Kai Grünitz, Volkswagen brand board member for technical development, about not having Skoda and Cupra versions of the new city car. “When you have big segments like the [supermini] segment, it’s big enough to have maybe three brands,” Grünitz told us. 

“But when you look [at the city car market], it’s not big enough for three brands. Maybe the truth is that not every brand will be in every segment. So there’s one brand, and that is Volkswagen. We’ll do the volume we did with up!, with Mii and with Citigo.”

That means the Fabia will remain Skoda’s entry-level model, and Jahn explained: “We believe that our A0 combustion range [Fabia, Kamiq and Scala] is still good enough and successful to cover the customer needs. For the foreseeable future, we will just go ahead with Epiq and with A0 combustion cars.”

Auto Express has learned that Skoda is planning to add fuel-sipping hybrid tech to those models based on the MQB-A0 platform soon, now that the Fabia, Kamiq and Scala are all going to live beyond 2030. 

But Jahn did leave the door open for a circa-£17,000 EV such as the VW ‘ID. Lupo’ in the future by adding: “Later on when the battery prices will drop we will entertain that possibility. But not at the moment.”

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