This industry, which we all love to be a part of in our different ways, can be puzzling. Why, for example do so few OEMs now offer large sedans, hatchbacks or wagons? They would claim it’s a shrinking segment and is mostly for buyers who want a premium brand car such as an E-Class, V90, 5 Series or A6. And yet.
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Neither Toyota nor Honda nor Geely nor BYD nor Hyundai & Kia nor the Volkswagen Group think they should walk away from the 4.8-5.0m long class. There is a lot of business to be done in this size category and as Škoda knows, many people don’t feel connected to luxury nameplates such as Mercedes, Volvo, BMW or Audi.
Look around the major markets of the world and we find the Hyundai Grandeur and Kia K5 doing great business in South Korea, while the Toyota Crown series is successful in Japan. Plus the decades-long rivalry of the Accord versus the Camry in the USA and China continues. Not to mention the ongoing big demand for BYD’s Qin models and Geely’s Xingrui sedan. Yes these segments have contracted but they’re still worth being in as the smart companies which remain, know.
Škoda Auto is almost gone from China and it’s small or non-existent in Asia’s other markets of consequence, including India. Conventional logic says it’s important to be making it big in such countries. Why then is the Czech OEM setting record profits and selling so many cars in Europe that in *May it passed BMW to become regional number three? Will second placed Toyota be next? And is this company making its best margins from all its small or medium sized cars, SUVs and those pricey-to-develop EVs?
Making it big
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By GlobalDataThe Superb is in some ways almost a cultish Škoda. It’s one of those cars you either know everything about or are ignorant of. Nobody dislikes it. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve had their minds blown when shown the amount of space inside a Superb of any generation or body style.
Now, with the current shape, the interior is more premium than you’ll find in most VWs or Audis. Reason being, technology overload is not present. Instead, sensibility, tactility and silence. Everything you could possibly want is there but of things which grate there are none.
Want just one example of how intelligently designed the Superb is? To deactivate steering interference there is an actual button which you touch with one finger whilst keeping your right hand on the steering wheel. Overall, nothing beep-nags, everything feels nice and looks great. This, in other words, is a luxury car. OK, the sunroof controls are awful but no worse than what I recently found in an XC90.
Nice knobbly knobs
A neighbour asked me about the Superb and sighed when I mentioned the touch-sensitive glass roof sliders and inadequate shading from the blind. Lamenting that his ID.3 is as bad, still he loves the car. The VW’s swipe-for-volume also frustrates so he was happy to see that it does not exist in the Škoda. An actual knob does that job, the same applying to mirror adjustment.
Things which are more neutral rather than rubbish would include what is an overloaded left-hand stalk. I did get used to it, and the right hand one, which selects R, N, D and P, also works well enough. The idea behind each is to liberate space on the central console. Here, you may hide valuables or just be a minimalist by rolling rubbery covers into place. Overall, the interior is way nicer than that of the new Audi A5 and Q5.
Some will say ah yes this is a mere niche model. Sure. So then why is it such a strong seller in the two big European countries which have expanding populations, namely Poland and Britain? Or why does it outsell all manner of supposed mainstream models in Germany, including Ford of Europe’s best seller, the Puma, or the Mercedes A-Class?
Circa 80,000 sold each year
Of course this huge car is far from being a six-figures global seller, production volume in 2024 – a changeover year – amounting to 54,500 with 17,400 delivered in Q1 of 2025 (placing it seventh in the brand’s 12-model line-up). Yet it has always been an important vehicle, the first generation dating to 1935 and having a fourteen-year production run at the firm’s Mladá Boleslav factory.
For reasons unknown, the company terms the fifth generation car number four. That’s how many evolutions have appeared under Volkswagen ownership, the first new post-WW2 Superb debuting in 2001. Each has been a better seller than its predecessor, the previous-to-current model setting a new record of 805,000 registrations between 2015 and when it was replaced in mid-2024.
Build is no longer in the Czech Republic, the 3Y series hatchback and Combi being produced on the same line as the Passat estate at the Volkswagen Group’s Bratislava factory. Škoda Auto in fact led the development of both cars, tweaking the FWD/AWD MQB Evo platform in the process.
Multiple engines, two dual clutch gearboxes
The shift to Slovakia took place not only to save cash by creating a shared manufacturing footprint for the VW and its Škoda twin, but also freed up capacity at Mladá Boleslav for more Octavia production. A move which is presently proving to have been a visionary one.
You’ve a choice of multiple engines and two DSGs with the latest generation Superb. The one I lived with for a week was the iV, which is Škoda-speak for petrol plug-in hybrid. Its transmission has six gears whilst the one in all others has seven.
Many more miles on electrons
Engine alternatives to the 1.5-litre PHEV are a base mild hybrid of the same capacity, or else a 2.0-litre petrol and a 2.0-litre diesel. With the TSI and TDI there are two power alternatives in each case. The petrol-electric system has had a major makeover, the battery’s capacity near-doubling to 25.7 kilowatt hours. That means a realistic range of up to 75 miles, which is…superb.
It should be surprising to no-one that this car keeps on keeping on. Not the top seller in its global size class – that title will continue to go to a German premium marque – yet Škoda doesn’t mind. Nor is the Superb likely to evolve into an EV for many years yet. Loyal buyers want it to stay much the same as it is: long but not too wide, priced fairly, dynamically comfortable rather than too firmly sprung and not seen on every street.
Sum-up
This continues to be one of the world’s best large cars. How lucky we are to live in the main region where it’s available. Pricing ranges from GBP35,925 to GBP49,115 (hatchback) or from GBP37,225 to GBP50,415 (estate).
*June data were not available as the time of publication
