VW ID.1 Entry-Level EV To Spawn Skoda Equivalent As Citigo Replacement
With the launch of the ID.3 and ID.4, Volkswagen has covered two of the world's most popular automotive segments right now - the compact hatchback and the compact SUV ones. A few more VW EVs are currently in the works for a release in the next few years and among them is believed to be an entry-level ID.1. It could spawn a Skoda version, according to a new report.
The ID.1 is expected to be based on a smaller version of Volkswagen's MEB platform, called MEB-entry. It could replace both the Up! and Polo in the brand's range and a Skoda version of that car seems highly likely with the company's new CEO basically confirming it in a recent interview.
"We would definitely try and follow suit on that," Thomas Schäfer told AutoExpress. "If the platform is there we could do something clever on top of it – it would definitely look completely different. It's a good side of the family so you don't have to do everything yourself."
The Skoda EV based on the MEB-entry is seen as a direct replacement for the Citigo iV, the brand's first production electric car. Even if its production gets the green light though, it won't arrive until the middle of the decade as the Czech manufacturer is prioritizing the market launch of the Enyaq and another, smaller electric vehicle.
"One of our biggest focuses at the moment is to go below Enyaq, that will be our first priority, then together with the group we could do something that is a city vehicle," Schäfer said, adding that an electric sedan roughly the size of the current Octavia is also possible at some point in the future. It won't cannibalize the Octavia moniker though as the latter remains "our key, key model."
It is currently believed that Volkswagen is advancing with the development of the ID.2, a small crossover based on the same architecture that will underpin the ID.1 and the rumored Skoda Citigo successor. VW reportedly wants to see it on sale as soon as 2023 at a starting price of about €20,000 ($23,900 at current exchange rates).
