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Skoda Afriq Concept Has a Clever Feature That Would Make the Apple Car Jealous

The eighth Skoda student car is here, and it’s called the Afriq, in reference to the famous Dakar Rally, while also putting the spotlight on the Volkswagen Group’s activities throughout North Africa, otherwise led by the Czech brand.
Skoda Afriq 23 photos
Photo: Skoda
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Looking like a rally car, with custom decals inspired by the Fabia Rally2 Evo, the Afriq builds on the Kamiq subcompact crossover. The rear doors were welded directly to a specially designed safety cage, thus making the body more rigid. It has fender flares, a roof scoop, big wing out back, and additional lights up front, and rides on 15-inch OZ Racing wheels.

On the inside, the new steering wheel, redesigned dashboard panel, roll cage, bucket seats, and several other gizmos make it look like a racer. It has an outdoor navigation system, complete with a kilometer counter that allows the use of rally navigation, cameras and microphones to record the drive, which is then stored on memory cards, and one clever feature that should at least become an option on true off-roaders, and, why not, on techy vehicles.

In a premiere for Skoda, the Afriq has a device that can extract drinking water from the surrounding air. Made by an Israeli company, it sucks in air from the atmosphere, filters out the dust and impurities, puts it through a heat exchange and cooling process, and then turns it into water. Subsequently, it passes through several filters that further purify it. UV light destroys microorganisms, and gets rid of harmful chemicals. Further exposed to UV light, the water is then stored in a tank at 5C (41F), from where it becomes available to the driver and passenger. Depending on the external conditions, the system can produce up to 20 liters (5.3 gallons) of drinking water each day.

Being roughly 100 kg (220 lbs) lighter, and around 100 mm (4 in) longer than the Kamiq, the Skoda Afriq features an all-wheel drive system sourced from the Octavia. It is also powered by its low-riding sibling’s turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, which puts out 190 ps (187 hp / 140 kW) and 320 Nm (236 lb-ft) of torque, mated to a seven-speed DSG. Oh, and don’t think that it previews a production derivative, because the study will join similar previous builds, such as the Slavia Roadster, Mountiaq, Sunroq, Element, Atero, FUNstar, and CitJet.
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About the author: Cristian Gnaticov
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After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s.
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