New baby Skoda set for vRS boost

EXCLUSIVE Budget MEB Entry EV could take lead from VW's next-gen GTI

- Steve Fowler

• Fast flagship of small EV range could wear the vRS badge
• Front-wheel-drive set-up of VW's ID.2 would be carried over

SKODA boss Klaus Zellmer has A hot VRS are very much still on the agenda in the firm's all-electric era, and that could mean a hot version of the brand's upcoming baby EV.

Auto Express caught up with Zellmer at the recent Munich Motor Show, which was used by Volkswagen to unveil its own vision of future hot hatchbacks, the ID. GTI Concept.

Asked if he fancied a Skoda VRS version of what will become the ID.2 GTI, Zellmer told us, "Yes, of course we are contemplating doing that, actually in all our model lines.

"If the technology is good enough to call it an RS [the VRS badge is only used in the UK, where Ford has the rights to the RS nameplate], then there's a high likelihood of us bringing an RS version."

Auto Express understands that Skoda's version of the ID.2, using the VW Group's MEB Entry - or AO - platform, is more likely to take the form of a compact crossover, as previewed by a digital sculpture revealed earlier this year. Our exclusive rendering shows how that could translate into a hot version, expected to wear the famed VRS badge in the UK.