The brand will always stay in “value for money” territory, he says, with today’s £17,000 Fabia currently at the entry point and the Scala, based on the VW’s Group’s A0 city car platform, the most recent arrival in that arena. Simply Clever will stay, too, says Zellmer. He has teams at work right now on finding brilliant, innovative ideas (remember the Superb’s door pocket umbrella?) and moving them into the digital age.In recent times, smaller models haven’t been selling strongly because, like most car makers in this period of component shortages, Skoda has had to concentrate on products and markets that most effectively contribute to the return of 8% on sales the group regards as success. (Zellmer is proud that if you remove the “three figures of millions” lost on unwinding its Russian operations, Skoda last year returned an 8.2% margin despite sales depleted by around 20%.)
Looking forward, the chairman cites building affordable battery EVs as the biggest challenge facing the car industry but says Skoda has pitched itself into the centre of the problem. “Our next car will be an A0-based BEV,” he says, “and that should get close to a price of €25,000 (£23,800) – a good step. But getting below €20,000 (£17,600) has to be the goal, and it will be tough if we’re going to offer our levels of safety, quality and design.”
He adds: “We’re already working on it. We’ve been tasked by the VW Group to look into a concept that will go below the A0. It is too early to talk about details, but I’m optimistic we can do it. I wouldn’t be sitting here in this seat if I wasn’t. But I don’t want to overpromise, because it’s hard. Let’s talk in a couple of months. Then, hopefully, we’ll know more.”
Do low-cost cars need a big volume? Zellmer doesn’t believe so, despite “fighting for every car” through the Covid years. “People ask if we can do 1.5 million, even two million, cars,” he says, “but I don’t believe that’s the point. We’ve shown over the past years that we’re resilient; our breakeven point is now lower than 70%. I say a million cars is a good number for Skoda, and anything more has to add very significantly to the bottom line.”