There's a new Skoda Superb, and it's hybrid

This is the new Skoda Superb, and as well as usual facelift fare of fancier lights and bumpers, it also gets something altogether more major. Hybrid power.

Mere, um, years after its Volkswagen Passat cousin, the Superb saloon and estate have gained petrol-electric plug-in hybrid power, offering up 215bhp and the ability to go around 30 miles emissions-free, contributing to a total range well beyond 500 miles. For a long-distance limo like this, that’s excellent news.

It’s Skoda’s first production hybrid but, given how long we’ve been able to buy Passat and Golf GTEs, it perhaps doesn’t feel like quite the landmark moment the Czech company hopes.

Nevertheless, it ought to be a more than pleasant thing; we’ve long been members of the Superb fan club and this latest iteration, which will also come with conventional petrol and diesel engines, gets the whole gamut of digital dials, vast connectivity and mollycoddling safety systems you’d expect of a new-age saloon. Rest assured there’s still a potent 268bhp petrol version on offer if all this talk of CO2-saving brings you out in hives.

And if they don’t, well Skoda’s also unveiled its first ever electric car, the Citigo e. Y’know, years after the VW e-Up…

Again, though, if you can ignore its tardy arrival compared to its VW equivalent then there’ll be much to like, namely a dinky, relatively affordable electric city car offering around 160 miles of range and 0-62mph in 12.5secs. Just not both at the same time.