PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Skoda plotting small SUV

Right now Skoda has just one SUV in its line-up – the Yeti – but that number will swell to three by 2020, with an additional compact SUV to follow next year's all-new Kodiaq seven-seat flagship and the second-generation Yeti.

Speaking at yesterday's Paris motor show, where the Kodiaq (pictured) made its world debut ahead of its mid-2017 Australian release, Skoda Auto's sales and marketing board member Werner Eichhorn made it clear the Yeti would be joined by a smaller SUV sibling.

Before Skoda's new baby SUV appears around 2019, Skoda will reveal its larger, second-generation Yeti -- most likely at the 2017 Geneva show next March, ahead of its Australian arrival in 2018.

"So far we have the Yeti, which is more a crossover, and then of course the Kodiaq, and now there will be some time to talk about the successor of the Yeti," he said.

"So we have done the big car, then the Yeti, and of course in the lower segment there might be an opportunity in the future to talk about another crossover, a small SUV.

"The Volkswagen Group gives us the opportunity to find ourselves and to build real Skodas that are well positioned.
So there might be another opportunity to add one more SUV within the next few years -- a smaller one."

Details on Skoda's all-new compact crossover are scarce, but the Czech car-maker's answer to the Mazda CX-3 is likely to based on Volkswagen's all-new sub-Tiguan small SUV due in 2018.

Eichhorn said the next Yeti was imminent and would ditch the original's Eastern Bloc styling, instead borrowing many of the new design cues seen on the Kodiaq.

"If you look at the lifecycle of the Yeti, that car has to be replaced very soon and our colleagues from PR will advise next steps...

"Part of the Kodiaq's new design language you will see on the replacement for the Yeti, but of course it will be unique. I wouldn't say conventional because, as I say with Kodiaq, there is a new design language into the SUV sector for Skoda.

"Of course, part of that you will see on the successor to the Yeti, but it will be unique again. We don't want to have all the cars looking the same."

It's been widely reported that, following the 2017 Kodiaq and 2018 Yeti, Skoda will add a sporty 'coupe' version of the Kodiaq to rival the BMW X4.

However, Eichhorn made it clear that any potential fourth SUV model from Skoda will be reserved for China, which with 300,000 annual sales now accounts for a third of the brand's global sales.

Previously, as part of its joint-venture with Chinese car-making giant SAIC, Skoda has produced a long-wheelbase version of the Yeti.

That situation could be repeated with Chinese-specific versions of both the Kodiaq and either the next Yeti or Skoda's all-new compact SUV.

"For the near future we have to add more cars [in China]," said Eichhorn. "We have decided to add two more cars [in China] we won't offer in Europe... a smaller CUV and a derivative of the Kodiaq."