Skoda paraded its first-ever SUV by having it act as the ‘Red Car’ support vehicle in the final stage of this year’s Tour de France, leading the racers though the streets of Paris past the Champs- Elysées boulevard onto the finishing line.
During the concluding stage, it served as the mobile control centre of the Tour de France and its race director Christian Prudhomme.
Skoda is far from a stranger from the largest cycling event in the world, providing 250 organisational and support vehicles as well as 50 team cars this year, a pattern that has repeated for the past several of these annual occasions (13 straight years as official partner, actually).
The Kodiaq was driven the Stephen Roche, the 1987 Tour de France winner, wearing a distinctive red and grey pattern camouflage that took four specialists 120 hours to apply the 21 metres-squared of foil onto the Kodiaq.
We’ve covered the Kodiaq before, from its emergence at as the the Vision S concept at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show to its ongoing development into a full production model based on the same Volkswagen MQB platform as the new Tiguan.
The Czech manufacturer is slated to unveil the finished SUV at this year’s Paris Motor Show, fittingly, and is due to go on sale in early 2017. Prior to that, however, the Kodiaq will have its full unveil in Berlin on September 1st.
Skoda boasts that the Kodiaq will have the largest boot in its class as well as offer extensive connectivity options, modern driver assist systems and future oriented infotainment system.
For more on Skoda vehicles, including pricing and specifications, check out our Showroom.
