World Debut: Skoda Kodiaq – The Czech Carmaker’s First 7-Seater SUV

The covers have come off Skoda’s first seven-seater SUV, the Kodiaq - bringing together the company’s firebrand of affordable luxury, technology and simplistic style. The world debut in Berlin comes a few months ahead of when the SUV is scheduled to go sale in Europe – early in 2017.

The 4.70m long SUV is based on the VW Group’s MQB modular platform architecture boasts a spacious interior for five (optional third row to seat seven) and the largest boot space in its class – at 2,065 litres with the second-row seats folded. The Kodiaq’s wheelbase stretches 2791mm, just 16mm shy of Audi’s Q5 premium mid-size SUV.

The key rivals for the Skoda Kodiaq in the European markets include the Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe and Land Rover Discovery Sport.

The design echoes Skoda’s blend of angular edges and contours - matched to overall clean-cut proportions. The Skoda Kodiaq SUV achieves a coefficient of drag (Cd) value of just 0.33.

Heated, ventilated and powered front seats can be ordered optionally, the rear seating offers 18cm of horizontal adjustment with backrests that are individually adjustable. The second-row seats offer 60:40 folding capability.

An impressive suite of driver assistance functions for the Skoda Kodiaq also enlists Tow Assist - the system takes over steering when reversing slowly with a trailer on-tow. ‘Area View’, a surround-view camera network is offered as standard, as is Active City Brake, which uses radars to detect a dangerous situation, and can apply partial or full braking up to 34km/h.

Three petrol (TSI) and two diesel (TDI) engines from the VW Group’s portfolio will be made available. All engines also feature Stop-Start, brake energy recovery and thermo-management systems - contributing to lower fuel consumption.

The 2.0-litre diesel TDI power plants are available in 150PS and 190PS guises. The petrol range starts off with two 1.4-litre TSI engines with 125PS and 150PS respectively, while the range topping 2.0-litre petrol operates with a new combustion process for higher efficiency, delivers 180PS and 320Nm at the crank.

The Skoda Kodiaq is supplied with a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The all-wheel-drive system with electronic control is available for most engine variants – delivering drive to all four wheels through an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch. 

The Skoda Kodiaq comes with 17-inch wheels as standard (18-inch alloys offered in more premium guises) controlled via a MacPherson setup at the front and a four-link setup on the rear axle. Another cool feature offered on the Kodiaq is the ‘XDS+’ electronic differential lock (a function of the ESC system) which also sees duty on the hallowed VW Golf GTi.