Students transform Skoda Kamiq SUV into Dakar rally monster

A team of 25 Skoda apprentices and students of the Czech brand’s vocational secondary school have turned their attention to creating a Dakar rally special, as part of Skoda’s long-running Azubi programme.

Now in its eighth year, Azubi (Skoda’s apprentice car study) takes one of the brand’s current models and transforms it into the car of students' dreams. This year’s iteration sees the team collaborating with Skoda’s Motorsport division to celebrate 120 years since Skoda’s first entry into competitive motorsport.

As the students have just begun embarking on development of the original vehicle, only initial design sketches are provided so far. But the exterior and interior first-looks show an aggressively styled concept with pumped-up guards and a substantial rear wing.

This is no simple design study either – the programme will see through that an actual prototype is built, based on the design sketches and modelling developed through full access to Skoda’s CAD (computer-aided design) software and engineering teams.

However, while the students will receive aid in developing and perfecting their design and engineering, final construction is always carried out by the students. The car will then undergo a final sign-off process, as would happen with any of Skoda’s own production cars.

As an aside, successful students of Skoda’s technical courses are offered employment at Skoda. The Azubi student car project is an extra way for students to learn from industry professionals.

Previous Azubi project cars included the 2014 CitiJet (CitiGo cabrio), 2015 FunStar (Fabia ute), 2016 Atero (Octavia coupe), 2017 Element (CitiGo EV buggy), 2018 Sunroq (Karoq roadster), 2019 Mountiaq (Kodiaq ute), and 2020 Slavia (Scala speedster).

Further images of the Dakar-ready Skoda Kamiq will be published as the project continues.