Czech car maker Skoda has matched parent company Volkswagen in its prediction for when its electric cars will outsell petrol and diesel vehicles.
Sales of Skoda electric vehicles will overtake petrol and diesel-powered models within the next five years, the boss of Skoda Australia has predicted.
The Volkswagen-owned Czech car maker has made the projection even though it does not currently sell an electric vehicle in Australia – and its first battery-powered model is still 18 months away.
However a wave of six new electric vehicles due in local showrooms by the 2028 target is planned to quickly make up for its status as one of the final volume-selling new-car brands to launch an electric car in Australia.
Skoda’s forecast matches parent company Volkswagen, which announced at the end of last year it expects its electric-car range – which begins to arrive next year – to overtake sales of petrol and diesel models by 2028.
The only other car maker to make a similar prediction in Australia is Volvo – but it has gone a step further with a commitment to end sales of petrol cars and go electric-only from 2026.
Most other car makers expect petrol and diesel power to remain dominant in Australia until next decade, as electric vehicles still account for only 7 per cent of new-car sales today.
There is only one battery-powered option in Australia’s top-selling vehicle category, utes – and few electric cars available for less than $50,000.
“Within five years we expect that,” the boss of Skoda Australia, Michael Irmer, told Drive when asked when he forecasts electric cars to outsell petrol and diesel in Skoda showrooms.
“But again nobody really knows, and it depends on a couple of external factors – and policymaking is one of those. Consumer acceptance and how quickly the consumers adapt is another one, but that has got a huge dynamic in the last couple of months.
“The consumers … [are] really voting clearly that they want [electric cars] increasingly now. And now I think we’re coming over a tipping point where everybody knows somebody with an electric car and then it all of a sudden become less alienating to have one, less strange and less fearful.
“All of a sudden that gives you comfort and I think that will kick on and that will only accelerate. It’s like the adaptation of iPhones when they first came out.”
The first Skoda electric vehicle for Australia is the Enyaq mid-size SUV, due in showrooms late next year.
A wave of four all-new models – and a facelift for the Enyaq, in standard SUV and ‘Coupe’ body styles – is due in local showrooms by the end of 2027 (pictured as ‘sculptures’ above).
Extracted in full from: Skoda Australia predicts electric cars to outsell petrol, diesel within five years – Drive
