The interior of the Skoda Kodiaq

Skoda presented the interior of the Kodiaq, before the car’s official presentation. The Kodiaq will be offered as a five-seater and a seven-seater, with its luggage space being 720 liters and reaching up to 2,065 liters, with the rear seats folded.

The interiro design follows the philosophy of the company’s models, having a large touch screen in the center console, rectangular air vents, a multifunction three-spoke steering wheel, leather upholstery, decorative aluminum and LED backlight. The Columbus infotainment system has LTE, Wi-Fi and SmartLink and it supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The car also has an inductive wireless charger for smartphones and a touch screen, even in basic equipment versions.

The SUV will make its official debut at the Paris auto show in late September and it will be available with five engines, a 1.4-liter TSI of 125 and 155 hp with 200 Nm torque and 220 respectively and a 2.0-liter TSI producing 180 hp with 320 Nm of torque. Also a 2.0-liter TDI that yields 150 and 190 hp with 340 and torque of 400 Nm.

The engines will be combined either with a six-speed manual or an automatic DSG gearbox, which will be able to send the power to the front, or all wheels (optional equipment). The length of the Kodiaq will be 4.7 meters.

The Kodiaq is expected to become the best-seller car of the company model, bringing new customers to the dealerships of Skoda, but at the same time showing the way for future SUV models that will be presented. It is already known that after Kodiaq the company will release a coupe SUV, which may have a sporty vRS version and be available only for the Chinese market.

As previously stated by the president of the company, Bernhard Maier, the SUV category is experiencing a big growth in the market. This was the reason for Skoda to decide to invest in this category. The traditional qualities of an SUV, such as the high seating position, visibility, storage space and practicality are consistent with the values of Skoda, said Maier, adding that future models of Skoda will have a more emotional design, to attract younger customers to the brand.

The car, along with the Seat Ateca, will be manufactured in the Czech company’s plant in Kvasiny and will be based on the MQB platform, which is also used by the new Volkswagen Tiguan. The two new SUVs will increase the annual capacity of the plant to 280,000 cars, while creating 1,300 new jobs over the next two years. The sales of the car are expected to begin by the end of 2016 or early 2017.