Skoda’s new compact SUV

THE NEW Skoda compact SUV, which is being officially launched later this week, will be called the Karoq.

The name and its spelling originate from the language of the Alutiiq, an indigenous tribe who live on an island off the southern coast of Alaska.

For the name of the new compact SUV, Skoda has drawn on the spelling of the Skoda Kodiak and in doing so, has implemented a consistent theme for naming the brand’s current and future SUV models.

The Skoda Karoq will be introduced to the public for the first time in Stockholm on 18 May and represents a further milestone in Skoda’s SUV campaign.

‘The Skoda Karoq is a completely newly designed SUV that sets new benchmarks for our brand and its segment in every way. With this new SUV, we are taking the next logical step in our SUV strategy,’ said Skoda CEO Bernhard Maier.

‘The Skoda Karoq impresses with its unique brand identity and a distinctive product identity and is introducing – alongside the typical Skoda strengths – the brand’s new, emotive design language into the compact SUV segment,’ added Maier.

The Karoq shares no mechanical part with the car it is effectively replacing, the Yeti.

‘When the Yeti came it was a single product but now we intend to have an SUV strategy, so we will have more cars,’ said Christian Strube, head of technical development at Skoda, ‘we have a bigger family of SUVs so we decided to have this naming policy; this is a new car, so it has a new name.’

According to Auto Express, the slab-sided, square profile is out, and this new car gets a design heavily influenced by the new, larger Kodiaq.

At the front it sports a flash new grille with the same sharp looking dual headlight setup. The angular creases and rakish side profile are carried over too, as is the tailgate and taillight design.

As before with the Skoda Karoq, the people from Kodiak Island provided the inspiration for the name of the Karoq.

The coordinates of the remote archipelago off the southern coast of Alaska are 57°N and 153°W, and its untamed, unspoilt landscape is fascinating. In the language of the indigenous people from the Alutiiq tribe who live there, ‘car’ is ‘KAA’RAQ’.

They use the term ‘RUQ’ for ‘arrow’, the symbol that constitutes the central element of Skoda logo and represents the brand’s dynamism. In the end, the name for SKODA’s new compact SUV – the Skoda Karoq – was formed from the powerful combination of both words.

‘It is important to us to give our new SUV a powerful name. It also forms part of a naming approach across our SUV models”, said Werner Eichhorn, Board Member for Sales and Marketing. “At the same time, we are creating exceptional and memorable brand recognition value for our customers,’ said Eichhorn.

As part of Skoda’s 2025 future strategy, the brand will continue to consistently advance the expansion of its model range in the coming years.

The focus will be on expanding the SUV portfolio in particular. With the launch of the Skoda Kodiak, a new large SUV was introduced to the international markets only recently. With the introduction of the Karoq, the company is now setting the next milestone.

The new compact SUV will be celebrating its world premiere on Thursday (May 18) in Stockholm. Its market launch will follow in the second half of 2017.