Eastern Ikons
December 1, 2025
Alex KiersteinSkoda is asking its designers to dream up concept cars virtually. They’re concept cars for concept’s sake, and that’s important.
Some designers at Škoda have been collaborating on a project to reimagine some of the brand’s historic cars as digital concepts. That, by itself, isn’t novel or frankly very interesting. But this doesn’t seem to be a preconceived campaign, rolling out a corporate design language or teasing at a new retro model. Instead, it appears to be an open-ended project with no particular end product.
I think that’s brilliant. And it’s brilliant that Škoda is promoting it through its media site. It gives the designers some leeway to be creative, but within the bounds of the brand’s history. And while there are some big-name car designers, many folks toil as part of a team, with the head of design (or the design team’s leader) getting the credit. Not to diminish the value of a strong designer guiding a team, but creatives get a boost from showing off their own work. As a side benefit, we get a less-scripted look at the results.
Some of these are fantastic. The 1000 MBX has some of the bulldog stance of the Nissan IDX, the greatest modern sports coupe that never was. Yes, the 1000 MBX has a more modern flavor, being 12 years newer. But it’s also, in some ways, more elegant than the somewhat esoteric IDX Freeflow. And considerably more elegant than, but complimentary to, the original 1000 MBX, which was a cheerful but not graceful coupe based on the 1000 MB.
It’s one of several referenced classic Škodas which will not be readily recognizable to even wordly car folks. That’s ok. I don’t need to have a mental image of the original 1000 MBX to appreciate the shape. And it seems produceable, being imagined as an EV. Give it realistic wheels, conventional doors, and real side mirrors, and I can imagine it capturing the attention on the road that Cybertruck owners thought they were signing up for.
The reimagined Škoda 110R is all of the above to another degree. It looks more production-ready, for one, although that’s not the point of the exercise. Some clever creasing makes it look more angular than it actually is, so the result is less DeLorean DMC-12 and more Lancia Montecarlo. That seems appropriate, given the DMC-12 was a bit of a slug and the Lancia Montecarlo was (loosely) related to some honest motorsports icons. The 110R evolved into the 130 RS, which actually won the Monte Carlo rally.
Some of the other designs in the series are less interesting (to me, at least), as overly abstract and somewhat generic concept art. None of these are likely to directly influence a product we might see in America, but I’m hoping that designers outside of Skoda might be inspired by them. After all, with EVs, outright performance is easily attainable. It’ll be product design, raw street appeal, that can truly set cars apart.
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