COVERCOVE Skoda Vision X driven
Behind wheel of concept previewing baby SUV
CONCEPT cars are created to give us a glimpse into the future. But once paraded in front of the crowds at a motor show, they’re often locked away and forgotten about.
Skoda does things a little differently; its latest Vision X concept, which previews a new baby crossover for 2019, is more than just some motor-show eye candy – it drives, and Auto Express has been behind the wheel. To give us a taste of what’s to come, we travelled to Skoda’s Czech headquarters for a quick spin in the Geneva Motor Show concept car.
While these opportunities offer little in the way of true driving impressions, it enables us to get up close with the project and the team behind it.
Catching up with designers Dalibor Pantucek and Dimitrios Darkoudis gives us a better understanding of the future styling direction for the brand. Skoda’s production cars usually stick fairly closely to their initial design sketches and the concept cars that preview them. Chief exterior designer Pantucek said the rounded wheelarches will remain, even though the bigger Karoq and Kodiaq use more angular cladding.
The Vision X’s two-tier front lighting signature is similar to that found on its SUV siblings, and is likely to be carried over wholesale. On production cars the illuminated grille will be sacrificed, not least for safety and regulatory reasons.
The split tail-light design should remain, though, offering an evolutionary pattern that sets it apart from other models in the Skoda SUV range.
So while the brand wants to avoid any Audi-style Russian Doll styling, both Darkoudis and Pantucek expressed their desire to stay true to Skoda’s ‘Simply Clever’ rationale, adding useful features
throughout. “We wanted to merge emotion and functionality,” Pantucek told us. “Good design is somewhere in between. Every feature has a purpose.”
The interior is filled with tech, from the large central touchscreen to the fully digital instruments. Bosses have confirmed this set-up will be fitted on Octavia, Superb, Karoq and Kodiaq cars this year, and the unnamed crossover should feature a similar system, too.
The ambient lighting from the concept is also likely to appear in the finished product as well, albeit simplified to ease production. The four-seat cabin will be ditched for a conventional rear bench and the frameless doors will go, too.
Our drive consisted of just a few laps of an empty warehouse, but it allowed us a chance to assess the car’s shape, size and practicality. Powered by a VW Group 1.5-litre TSI engine, our car ran on compressed natural gas (CNG). While the fuel is gaining traction in Europe, it’s unlikely to be offered when the car arrives in the UK next year. A small electric motor gave our test model a short EV range, as well as offering power to the rear axle for part-time all-wheel drive.
The showroom-ready crossover will use the Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform, allowing for petrol, diesel and electrified powertrains, as well as front or fourwheel drive. Manual and automatic gearboxes will be available. Prices are expected to start from around £16,000.