Skoda Vision RS
Hot hatches, go-faster SUVs... no one’s laughing now, are they?
Now Skoda is no longer the punchline of a Christmas cracker joke, it wants you to change your thinking again. It wants you to think ‘phwoar’ when you look at a Skoda. And ‘fast’.
Skoda’s going all out to reinvent its styling into something altogether angrier, and has draped it over a hybrid hot hatchback. The Vision RS previews a new hatchback from Skoda, called the Scala, that’ll ratchet up the kerb appeal versus the nice-but-beige Octavia – and turn the trickle of plug-in hybrid Skodas into a torrent.
The Vision RS relies on the VW Group’s 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo engine, which puts out 148bhp. Not much, huh? Ah, but the future won’t depend on old-fashioned cylinders banging up and down. So, the Vision RS adds a 100bhp dollop of electric squirt, which drops the 0–62mph sprint down to 7.1 seconds. Skoda says total system power is 242bhp. That’s still off the pace of a Golf GTI Performance or Hyundai i30N, mind you. Or a Skoda Octavia VRS. Awkward. But we imagine the petrol engine could be boosted from its humble totals, and besides, this is more about efficient performance than head-banging acceleration.
So, spend two-and-a-half hours charging the 13kWh lithium-ion battery and Skoda claims you’ll go 43 miles on the charge. We’re also told average CO2 emissions are 33g/km – because plug-in hybrids aren’t half clever at shining on rolling-road tests…
Still, the numbers are merely appetisers for now. What’s important here is whether or not you look at the Vision RS’s carbon-festooned bodywork and find yourself gnawing the back of your hand and wanting it.