Czech car maker Skoda released today the first photos of their first electric concept study, called Skoda Vision-E. Pitched as a five-door SUV coupe, the concept previews Skoda’s future electric range which by 2025 will include five different models, beginning with a Skoda Superb plug-in hybrid coming in 2019. 

Skoda Vision-E also dabbles in autonomous driving and achieves the prerequisites for level 3 autonomous driving: It can operate independently in traffic jams, go into autopilot on motorways, stay in lane and swerve, carry out overtaking manoeuvres, independently search for free parking spaces and park and leave parking spaces alone. Skoda reckon by 2030 up to 15 percents of all new cars will self-driving and they don’t want to be left behind.

As for the concept itself, Skoda Vision-E is 4,645 mm long, 1,917 mm wide and 1,550 mm tall, and powered by two electric motors working all four wheels with 225 kW of max power, corresponding to a top speed of 180 km/h (112mph) which doesn’t seem that high but that’s because the focus here has been on efficiency. The Vision-E has a range of  500 kilometres (311 miles) on a single charge which is amazing, but Skoda says nothing about the lithium-ion batteries charging time.

We should keep an eye on this space as some exciting things seem to be happening with Skoda in the near future.