Skoda Kodiaq RS Spied in the Alps, Sabine Schmitz Is Driving it at the 'Ring

To be honest, the official clip is a little bit more exciting, and not because we're suckers for a soundtrack. No, a car like this is all about the trim, and you can see more of it than in our spyshots.

More specifically, the prototype is wearing bright red wheels, and it even has red bolts. How cool is that! The 235 Continental tires and ventilated brake discs are obvious upgrades over the standard Karoq.

The front bumper likely isn't the production version in either spyshots or official video. It just looks like the regular version with the little chin inserts from the Sportline trim level. Likewise, the interior appears to have the Alcantara powered bucket seats from the Sportline with the red-stitched steering wheel of the of the Octavia RS.

We also see a little bit of that fake carbon fiber leather, which you may already see in the Cupra models.

The VW Group is working on several performance SUVs/crossovers right now, but the Kodiaq RS is the only one with a diesel engine. This has already been confirmed to be the 240 horsepower, 500 Nm bi-turbo 2.0 TDI used by the Tiguan, Passat and Superb.

The 400 horsepower Tiguan R might eventually steal the spotlight away from the Kodiaq RS. But we know plenty of Skoda buyers want an attractive, practical car with lots of torque. That's why you sometimes see Octavia RS tow cars but never the Golf GTIs.

It should give the Kodiaq a 0 to 100 kph sprint time of around 6.5 seconds and a top speed near the 230 kph threshold. That's not bad for a 1.8 ton Skoda which might even be available as a 7-seater.