“I came across the first piece on D11. I was mainly interested in the special brands and also the accompanying Octavia,” reader Honza described the circumstances to us, referring to the license plate with the letter F (it is used for testing purposes). Perhaps you have also seen a Škoda test convoy on these “efficacious” brands, but this time there was also a Volkswagen among the Škoda cars…
“I drove onto D8 and after a few kilometers the exact same Volkswagen that I tried to identify already on D11. He was riding again in the train with the Škoda, again it was white, but this time I got closer and noticed the Virtus badge on the back. I’ll admit that it didn’t mean anything to me, so I took a few photos. I’ve never seen such a car here,” Honza wrote to us.
And he shouldn’t even see. As we wrote in the introduction, Virtus should be sold exclusively in India, selected markets in Africa and Asia are still being considered, but Europe should not be considered. So why did Škoda Slavia’s sibling break out on Czech highways?
Coming across a Virtus on Czech roads is a real rarity.
It probably hit you by now, the technical affinity with the Škoda model (also intended for the Indian market) is the key. The Mladoboleslav carmaker is in charge of the development of the MQB A0 platform, on the basis of which the Indian twins are built. And just as in the past months we could see another Indian special car, the Škoda Kushaq, on Czech roads, the VW Virtus is now driving around our roads under the guidance of Škoda drivers.
However, nothing other than prototype testing can be deduced from the presence of Virtus on Czech highways. “We are definitely not considering importing to Europe and, of course, the Czech Republic,” David Valenta from the Czech VW representative told us. And that this is indeed testing under Škoda’s command, Pavel Jína confirmed to us for a change. “Given that we are in charge of platform development, testing also takes place logically on our side,” Škodovka’s press spokesperson told us.
A little more about Virtus – we have already mentioned the technical basis, the car is 4561 mm long, the trunk has a volume of 521 liters. A nice number, but the Czech customer would probably not be pleased with the concept of a sedan, after all, we are more used to liftbacks with more accessible luggage space.
The drive units are represented by the well-known TSI engines – a liter three-cylinder with 115 horsepower, with a stronger four-cylinder 15-horsepower engine you can improve to 150 horsepower. For the weaker engine, there is a choice between manual and automatic, the four-cylinder is combined exclusively with a seven-speed DSG.
