Who said the estate car is dead? New electric Skoda Octavia previewed by Vision O concept
Skoda will reveal its vision for the future of estate cars at next month’s Munich Motor Show
Skoda has shared more details about its new Vision O electric estate car concept, which will be fully unveiled at the 2025 Munich Motor Show and will preview the next-generation Skoda Octavia due in 2027.
This new teaser image provides our best look yet at the Vision O’s sleek but traditional silhouette, with its long bonnet, heavily sculpted bonnet and sloping nose. We expect it will incorporate a new take on Skoda’s Tech-Deck front end design found on the new Elroq and facelifted Enyaq.
Elsewhere, we can see the roofline sloping towards the rear because Skoda says its focused a lot of attention on aerodynamics – as you’d expect with an electric car. This hints that the next Octavia Estate won’t be as boxy as its predecessors. The rear window appears to be a little more raked than the current Octavia too, and there are new T-shaped tail-lights that look similar to those on the Skoda Epiq concept from last year.
While the first electric Skoda Octavia is still a few years away, the new Skoda Elroq – the Auto Express 2025 Car of the Year – is now available through our Buy A Car service from £31,510 and there are plenty of lease deals available too, with prices currently starting from £272 per month.
What does Skoda say about the new Octavia?
Oliver Stefani, Skoda’s head of design, has hinted the Vision O will show an evolution of the brand’s ‘Modern Solid’ design language, while highlighting “our commitment to pushing boundaries and continuously bringing innovation to future automotive design.”
But the concept is still a Skoda, and supposed to preview the next iteration of our reigning Family Car of the Year, so unsurprisingly the “Vision O is extremely practical for everyday use and brings surprising and thoughtful details," according to Stefani.
The company’s CEO, Klaus Zellmer, added: “The Vision O design study will highlight the future trajectory of estate models. It will position us to remain a major player in the estate segment.”
Does this mean the Skoda Octavia is going fully electric?
Yes and no. The next-generation Skoda Octavia will be the electric, and the brand’s first model based on Volkswagen Group’s new SSP architecture. However, the existing combustion-powered Octavia will live on alongside the EV, so customers can choose which suits them best.
The new EV estate was originally due to be built on a lengthened version of the existing MEB platform that the Elroq uses. Since we got an official look at the car in the form of a design sculpture in 2023, though, Skoda has decided to use SSP for the electric estate.
Either way, by using a bespoke electric car platform and capitalising on a cab-forward design, the upcoming electric Octavia has the potential to offer more interior space than its combustion-powered counterpart, even if they’re the same size on the outside.
The interior will probably share the exterior’s simplified and modernised aesthetic and could potentially incorporate a portrait-aspect central display, like the one seen in the 7S Concept. Skoda should continue with its Smart Dials layout and retain most of the physical dials and buttons – just as we’ve seen in the current Superb and Kodiaq.
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