At Skoda these days are busy developing their not yet ready for production "Green E Line" vehicles – a segment of electric cars based on the Octavia Estate. Right now, a fleet of ten E Lines is undergoing a phase where day to day conditions are recreated so see how the cars behave. The whole green thing is a part of Skoda's plan to excel in the field of fuel efficiency. Other projects concerned with that often work to optimize the TDI and TSI drivetrains and also various transmissions.

The gathered data will be of extreme value for fine-tuning to get the most out of the cars. Issues that concern potential customers can also be addressed – being extremely silent in traffic might be a disadvantage for example.

The whole testing procedure comprises of three phases: the first and the second are ongoing now and deal with in-house (on the Prague airport to be more exact) trials and research of the car's various systems. The third phase, set to begin in March this year, will put the fleet to the real test as the cars will go to different institutions other than Skoda Auto (government, educational institutions etc.) for further research and testing in real life conditions.

Skoda Green E Line (Octavia based)

Because of being based on the Octavia Estate, the Green E Line is ideal for harboring electric car components such as batteries, motors and electronic controllers. Power output stands at 85 kW and generous figure of 270 Nm. (because of being electric, torque tends to be always high and instantly available throughout the whole rev range). A zero to sixty time is said to be around 12 seconds and top speed is as high as 135 kph. On a single charge it is estimated that the E Line will go for 150 km which is more than enough to satisfy various European communities.

Source: Skoda