Next-gen Skoda Kodiaq (2023 debut) to gain Plug-in Hybrid variant [Update]

Update: ‘Next-gen Skoda Kodiaq to debut in 2023’ and ‘Design’ sections updated.

With an aim to cut fleet emissions by more than 50% by 2030 compared to 2020, Skoda is renewing efforts to electrify its carlines. The company has launched the Enyaq iV and Enyaq Coupe iV, and it will launch three more EVs by 2026. Although the next-gen Skoda Kodiaq won’t be fully electric, it will feature one or more hybrid technologies.

Next-gen Skoda Kodiaq to debut in 2023

At the company’s ‘Explore More’ event on August 30, 2022, organized to unveil the Skoda Vision 7S concept, Klaus Zellmer, the new CEO of Skoda Auto, revealed that the company will unveil the next-gen Kodiaq in the second half of 2023.

Dear guests, in this transition to e-mobility, we strengthen our highly efficient ICE product portfolio as well, with models like the new superb or the Kodiaq generation that we will be presenting in the second half of next year, followed by the upgraded Octavia in 2024.

Klaus Zellmer, CEO, Skoda Auto (Explore More on August 30, 2022)

On January 11, 2023, commenting on Skoda’s 2022 worldwide sales announcement, Zellmer reaffirmed that the next-gen Kodiaq is on track to debut in 2023. We think the company will unveil it in the final quarter of the year.

Design

Skoda was seen testing the next-gen Kodiaq within days of the August 2022 announcement, with the first spy shots surfacing in mid-September 2022. These pictures showed an early prototype wearing the current model’s body, so we need to wait a bit longer to talk about the design. The company has taken an evolutionary path in redesigning models, so expect nothing radically new in the second-generation Skoda Kodiaq.

Skoda is yet to start testing the 2024 Kodiaq prototypes carrying the final design, but that won’t stop us from exercising imagination! As we’ve depicted in our rendering above, here’s what the 2024 Kodiaq with a bolder design inspired by the Skoda Vision 7S concept could look like.

The next-gen Kodiaq in our illustration has an understated front fascia with a smaller radiator grille featuring upright double ribs and noticeably slimmer, T-shaped LED headlights connected via a gloss black stripe. Skoda’s new typographic logo is placed on the hood, at the tip of the bonnet. Note that this is an enthusiast’s rendering, and we will have a revised version closer to the actual car when the first full-body test prototypes hit the street.

Skoda Kodiaq Hybrid confirmation

Skoda Auto presented the facelifted Kodiaq in 2021 with 1.5 TSI Evo, 2.0 TDI, and 2.0 TSI engines. The 1.5 TSI Evo engine comes with a 48V mild-hybrid system in Volkswagen’s Golf family, but Skoda is not offering it in the new Kodiaq. However, the company has confirmed it will offer electrification in the next-gen Kodiaq, and given that the stricter Euro 7 norms are coming into effect around 2025, that was inevitable.

At Skoda’s annual press conference on 22 March 2022, Thomas Schäfer, former CEO, Skoda Auto, confirmed that a Kodiaq Plug-in Hybrid is in the pipeline, although he was quick to note that it won’t be a big launch. He said plug-in hybrid technology is “a very expensive way” of reducing CO2 emissions and fuel consumption and that there are other (better) ways like designing vehicles with better aerodynamics and using the latest efficient engines. Yet, the company’s upper-end models will still get plug-in hybrid tech, the former CEO confirmed.

Plug-in hybrid’s also a very expensive way of bringing down CO2 and consumption because you technically have two systems in the car. We are focusing on the one side fully on our electrification of the brand but at the same time obviously, as you can see, with the Fabia, we managed with clever ways and ingenuity in the design – drag coefficient – plus super-efficient small engines. (That’s) even a better way than hybridisation. So, we’re very happy with what we have. We have plug-in hybrids in the Kodiaq and in the Superb and Octavia, but we’re not planning to roll this out in a bigger way.

Thomas Schäfer, former CEO, Skoda Auto (Skoda Auto Annual Press Conference 2022 on 22 March 2022)

Skoda could offer the next-gen Kodiaq exclusively in mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid guises. The former may employ drives equipped with 1.5-liter and possibly even 2.0-liter turbocharged engines coupled to a 48-volt system and a DSG.

The next-gen Skoda Kodiaq and VW Tiguan could share the newly developed plug-in hybrid system that combines a 1.5-liter turbocharged petrol engine with an electric motor. This powertrain would be more powerful than the 1.4L plug-in hybrid system that the Volkswagen Group brands currently employ. In 2021, VW confirmed a 100 km (62 mi) electric range for the incoming PHEV system for the core models.

A Skoda Kodiaq Electric will arrive in time

During the Q&A session after the announcement of the Skoda Strategy 2030 held last year, a journalist asked the management about the launch of a Kodiaq EV. Schäfer responded that a Skoda Kodiaq EV or an all-electric model equivalent to the Kodiaq would arrive on the MEB platform or a future VW Group electric vehicle architecture. However, launching EVs below the Enyaq iV is the first priority. The company is developing new electric cars in size and price below the Enyaq iV to reach its electrifications targets and become a Top 5 car brand in Europe by 2030.

This (electrifying Kodiaq), I can agree, and look, it’s always this kind of questions you know, will it be electrified? Eventually, yeah, probably, you know, but will it be based on the same platform? No. Certainly not. So, the Enyaq from the size point of view, you know, it’s almost in the Kodiaq space. For now, as I said, our focus is now going rather a little bit in little smaller than the Enyaq than bigger than the Enyaq. But I wouldn’t say that in the long term that we’re not electrifying or have a vehicle in that space.

Thomas Schäfer, former CEO, Skoda Auto (Skoda Strategy 2030 announcement on June 24, 2021)

For now, the only feature the Kodiaq borrows from the Enyaq iV is aerodynamics. Citing Oliver Stefani, chief designer, Skoda Auto, a snippet from Autocar suggests that the company applied learnings from the Enyaq iV to improve the Kodiaq’s aerodynamics in the facelift.

TopElectricSUV says

The next-gen Skoda Kodiaq should offer everything the current model has been popular for, including loads of cabin and cargo space, plenty of convenience and connectivity features, and many choices of performance levels. With improved engines and optional plug-in hybrid technology, the redesigned seven-seater SUV should have a lower total cost of ownership.

Featured Image: TopElectricSUV’s rendering of the next-gen Skoda Kodiaq. The illustration is purely speculative and isn’t a representation of the actual product.