► Citigo city car gets the chop
► No immediate plans to replace
► But VW ID.1 clone ‘could happen’
Skoda has confirmed it is killing the Citigo city car – making the electric Citigo e-iV that appeared in its twilight years something of a rarity. It was only launched in the UK earlier this year and around 400 will have been sold here before it gets the chop.
Speaking to CAR magazine, global sales and marketing chief Alain Favey revealed that the A-segment baby was being dropped, as the company focused on more profitable sectors and invested in electrification. No internal combustion engine Citigos are listed on Skoda’s UK website, but you can still order the electric version.
‘Citigo is gone,’ Favey said. ‘As far as Europe is concerned we are sold out. There will not be a replacement of the Citigo and we have no intention to have a car of this size in the future.’
He admitted that Skoda could piggyback any future small Volkswagen electric city car, but claimed no decision had yet been made. ‘If one day there is a version of the Volkswagen Group’s MEB electric platform which allows smaller cars to be produced, we would have a Skoda version.’
A baby electric car for VW, Skoda and Seat
CAR magazine has already revealed plans for the VW ID.1 at the entry level of Wolfsburg’s burgeoning electric car empire (see our artist’s impression below). Bosses admit it is challenging to make an EV for less €20,000 (£18k), but privately predict a small electric car should be viable by 2025, with a low-cost version of the MEB architecture carrying batteries of 24 and 36kWh capacity.
We expect a Skoda variant around the same time. This is one of the first examples of how established nameplates of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars will disappear – making way for a new generation of EVs.
Manufacturers can’t afford to run parallel ranges of ICE and EVs – so you can expect more familiar models, especially in niche segments, to bite the dust in the coming years, as the industry gradually switches over to electrification.
CAR’s guide to the best electric cars