Skoda will show an electric SUV concept at the Geneva motor show next month, called the Vision iV. We know that Skoda is planning to produce an electric SUV based on the VW Group’s new MEB platform, and it’s this concept that will preview that incoming production model, which will go on to headline Skoda’s push to offer ten electric or hybrid models by 2022.
The new styling elements introduced on this concept should transition relatively unchanged when the first MEB-based production models begin to arrive from 2020, and form the beginning of the Skoda design language we expect to see in the future.
The first and most distinctive of these elements is the full width front light bar that connects the headlights, through a solid grille motif with Skoda’s trademark vertical slats. Without the usual cooling requirements, Skoda’s designers have had to approach the issue of translating the marque’s identity into a new package while still retaining Skoda’s distinctive aesthetic.
The brand’s crisp, angular surfacing is evident, but along the flanks this Vision iV shows a subtle roundness sitting above and below the main character line, informing the clamshell bonnet and level front and rear haunches. The steeply raked front and rear screens and cab-forward silhouette do hint at the Tesla Model X, but is also a telltale element of the electrified underpinnings.
While Skoda has remained coy as to the production date of this coupe body shape, a more traditionally shaped SUV model will arrive first, kicking off a whole suite of all-electric MEB models built by Skoda, and its stablemates within the Volkswagen Group.
No images or details of the interior have so far been shown, but we suspect there will be a heavy emphasis on digitisation and the introduction of the next-generation user interfaces. We’ll know more closer to the Geneva motor show, where we also expect the reveal of Skoda’s smallest SUV, the Kamiq.