Skoda reveals details about its new ‘affordable car’ platform

The Czech automaker will develop an international variant of the MQB‑A0 unibody architecture that will later be used by Skoda and Volkswagen brands. Here are the details.

The first car designed by Skoda for an emerging market was the Kushaq for India (see video). The budget-friendly crossover utilized a tweaked version of the MQB-A0 platform and turned out good enough for Volkswagen Group to greenlight further development of cars based on it. Later this year, Skoda will be revealing another affordable car for that country, reportedly named ‘Slavia’.

Dr. Johannes Neft, Skoda’s top manager responsible for technological development, has promised to adapt the layouts of these new cars to individual requirements of buyers from different countries. Only entry-level cars in such key markets as Russia, India, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia will receive MQB‑A0 underpinnings.

Aprt from the Kushaq and Slavia, the platform is currently used by the Skoda Fabia, the Volkswagen Polo and some of cheaper VW-badged SUVs, like the Nivus for Latin America, Taigo for Europe, or Taigun for India.