CARS OF THE WORLD

Skoda Superb 2024.

New Skoda Superb: engine characteristics declassified, diesel will be, manual gearbox — no.

Skoda, part of the Volkswagen Group, announced that the premiere of the fourth-generation Superb flagship model will take place in November this year.

A new portion of photos has been published and the line of power units has been revealed — it is slightly different from that of the related ninth generation VW Passat.

The preview of the «ninth» Passat took place last week, its full-fledged premiere will take place in August, and the new Skoda Superb is a little late, as if on purpose skipping ahead of a more status brother in the group.

Meanwhile, Skoda was responsible for the development of both mid-size models of the new generation, and the differences between the Passat and Superb at the body level this time will be minimal and will be reduced, in fact, to the design of bumpers and lighting equipment.

The platform is another iteration of the well-deserved MQB.

The new VW Passat, as you know, will be offered only in the station wagon body (we emphasize that we are talking about the European version of the model, the Chinese Passat is a different story), and the new Skoda Superb will still retain the familiar variety.

It will be offered in liftback and station wagon bodies. The Skoda press service already published photos of the station wagon in camouflage wrapping in May, so we didn’t learn anything new in terms of design today, but a rather detailed technical description appeared.

The wheelbase of the Czech model has not changed with the change of generations — 2841 mm, the overall width without mirrors of both bodies has decreased by 15 mm to 1849 mm.

The overall length of the liftback increased by 43 mm to 4912 mm, the station wagon — by 40 mm to 4902 mm.

In height, the liftback has grown by 12 mm to 1481 mm, the station wagon — by 5 mm to 1482 mm.

The trunk volume in the new liftback is 645 liters (+20 liters compared to its predecessor), in the station wagon — 690 liters (+30 liters).

The interior design of the new Superb has not yet been declassified, but, judging by the description, there will be no fundamental differences from the “ninth” Passat.

The automatic transmission selector has moved to the steering column, the multimedia screen has reached 12.9 inches, up to nine airbags and the latest electronic driver assistants have been announced, which will allow the new Superb to receive the highest Euro NCAP safety rating.

In addition, up to 28 practical Simply Clever accessories are promised, including a power luggage cover on the station wagon, double pockets in the backrests of the front seats, a tablet holder in the center armrest in the rear seat and an integrated funnel in the washer fluid reservoir.

The new Skoda Superb, like the new VW Passat, is addressed to the most conservative European consumers and the range of power units for it has been chosen to match, rather old-fashioned.

But there are no more manual transmissions, as it is more difficult to achieve acceptable environmental performance with them.

The Superb now only has a DSG (two-clutch automatic), 7-speed on all versions except the plug-in hybrid, which settles for a 6-speed.

In total, two hybrid versions have been announced for the new Superb, both front-wheel drive and both made on the basis of a 1.5 TSI gasoline turbo engine: a mild hybrid with a starter-generator produces a maximum of 150 hp, a plug-in hybrid with an assisted internal combustion engine “full-fledged” electric motor — 204 hp.

The battery capacity of the plug-in hybrid version almost doubled from 12.7 kWh to 25.7 kWh with the change of generations, the range on electric traction reached 100 km on the WLTP cycle.

The 2.0 TSI petrol engine will be offered on the new Superb without any hybrid add-on, its power is 204 hp in the front-wheel drive version, 265 hp in the all-wheel drive version.

The 2.0 TDI turbodiesel also avoided electrification: it will produce 150 hp on the front-wheel drive Superb, and 193 hp on the all-wheel drive.

A Skoda press release said that each new Superb turned out to be more successful than the previous one, but this trend is unlikely to support the fourth generation model, because the “green doctrine” pursued by the European authorities.

In particular, the upcoming environmental regulations Euro 7, puts «hydrocarbon» models on the brink of survival: they will either rise sharply in price or completely disappear.

Last spring, Skoda already threatened that it would “kill” the most affordable Fabia, Scala and Kamiq models if Euro 7 standards were not relaxed.