Its looks may be its saving grace.
The night before the opening of the Geneva Motor Show, Czech marque Skoda pulled the wraps off its Vision IV concept SUV, which will be the star at its stand at the prestigious event. It’s the first Skoda to use Volkswagen’s electric MEB platform (and the third brand to do so after VW themselves and SEAT), and makes use of a lot of known MEB quantities to push itself along.
One of those quantities is the powertrain: There’s an electric motor on each axle and a flat-pack lithium-ion battery in the floor, giving the Vision IV an all-electric range of about 500km thereabouts. No performance stats have been given, like century sprint times or even official outputs, but we’re guessing they’re not to be scoffed at.
Visually, the face is predominantly made up of a large, closed-off grille, bisected by a full-width light bar that runs from one end of the headlights to the other. Beneath that sits an aggressively-styled bumper, behind which sits aerodynamically-optimised alloys. There are no door handles or door mirrors (of course), but there is the ever-fashionable coupe roofline, which ends in a neat ducktail spoiler at the rear.
That back end features Skoda signature C-shaped taillights and red-backlit Skoda badge between, with a full-width red light-bar sitting rather oddly (but not unflatteringly) on the lower bumper.
The cabin of the Vision IV is very much an exercise in practicality, with designers making full use of the flat-floor afforded by the all-electric powertrain. There’s a dual-tier dashboard which houses a free-standing infotainment screen & digital dials, as well as a two-spoke steering wheel that looks rather ornate will all its switchgear. The climate controls appear to have been neatly integrated into the furthermost vents on the left & right sides of the cabin, while the centre console features two wireless charging pads to juice up two mobile devices at once.
The Skoda Vision IV is very much a thin-veil over a production model, for all intents and purposes. We won’t get those 22-inch alloys or the weird venting in the cabin, but we will get a smart-looking pee-coloured SUV-coupé with no exhaust pipe. Expect to see this as early as 2020 or maybe 2021, with a semi-premium price tag and lacking a computer monitor on the dash.
For the best deals on a new car, check out our Showroom.
