Skoda has announced it will make an all-electric city car called the E-Citigo, set to hit the market in 2014.
By John Silcox on January 17, 2012 10:34 AM
Following in the tracks of its parent company Volkswagen, which unveiled the E-Up at last year’s Frankfurt motor show, the Czech brand is giving clients a similar eco-friendly offering, albeit a year later.
The four-seater will share most of its engineering with the VW, including a 26.5-kWh battery pack and 85-kW electric motor. This should enable the car to achieve a driving range of 80 miles and a 0-60mph acceleration time of under ten seconds. It is assumed that in a similar vein to the Seat test fleet that shares its e-technology with Volkswagen, the car’s batteries will come from Brunswick and the drive train from the VW plant in Kassel.
This EV will be based on the same platform as the traditionally powered Citigo, which is set to go on sale in UK dealers this summer and is Skoda’s sixth line model. It's a very compact vehicle, measuring a mere 3560mm, but it has a maximized wheelbase thanks to a clever design, with minimal overhangs. The Citigo is 1650mm wide and totals a diminutive 1480mm from road to roof.
On 11 January 2012, Skoda’s chairman Winfried Vahland spoke to the German magazine Auto Bild at the launch of a fleet of ten Skoda Octavia Green E Line estates, at the brand’s plant in the Czech Republic. He said: “An electric Citigo makes perfect sense. But the pure electric drivetrain is only for city driving.”
Vahland also announced that plug-in hybrid versions of the Octavia, Skoda Yeti and Suberb models are in the pipe-line.