Czech carmaker Skoda has confirmed that later in 2019, the Superb will not only receive its mid-life refresh but also a plug-in hybrid power-plant. Neat! While the mid-life update was inevitable as the third-gen Superb is already three years old, the introduction of a plug-in hybrid derivative is surely a welcome one. In all likelihood, the latter will draw more attention than the subtle cosmetic and feature upgrades.

Do we know anything about the plug-in hybrid Superb? In a word, no. But we can take a road down speculation street. Don’t be disappointed now! We’ll do some calculated guesswork. The Skoda Superb shares almost all its underpinnings with the Volkswagen Passat. The new VW Passat has a variant tagged as the GTE – a plug-in hybrid. We believe to keep the costs in check, Skoda will borrow the same dual-engine power-plant for the Superb plug-in hybrid.

Details? The plug-in hybrid brings a 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine which, all on its own, can produce 156PS and an electric motor which pumps out 115PS as a standalone. The total system output is 218PS which is around the same as its main rivals from Japan. The electric motor gets its juices from a 13kWh battery which is good enough for an all-electric range of 55km, for the Passat, under the stricter WLTP cycle.

Like in the Passat, the hybrid powertrain will come with multiple driving modes in the Superb. Apart from the all-electric driving mode, there will be a performance mode where both the petrol engine and the electric motor will work together, and a hybrid mode which automatically shifts between electric and petrol power. As far as charging the onboard battery pack is concerned, it can be done either on the move using the petrol engine as the source or, as the name suggests, by feeding the car with electricity via a socket.

Current Skoda Superb

Skoda also announced that the current-gen Superb has crossed the 500,000-production mark. The milestone vehicle was manufactured in Kvasiny, Czech Republic. The company manufactures the Superb in four other plants across the globe – Nanjing in China, Ust-Kamenogorsk in Kazakhstan, Solomonovo in Ukraine and Aurangabad in India. The Superb was first launched in 2001 and since then, more than 1.25 million units of it have been produced worldwide.

Needless to say, Skoda will bring the mid-life update of the Superb to India. Will we get the plug-in hybrid variant? We sure hope so. If we do, the Honda Accord Hybrid and the Toyota Camry Hybrid will finally get a direct rival from Europe.