Skoda Auto Volkswagen India Private Limited, which manages five Volkswagen Group brands here (Skoda, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini), has announced its first-ever student car project in India.

Skoda Auto Volkswagen India training program

Selected students from the Group Academy's Dual Vocational Training in Mechatronics programme have created a unique cabriolet version of the Skoda Rapid sedan. This project offers students a hands-on experience in the automotive industry, allowing them to apply their theoretical knowledge in a practical setting.

Piyush Arora, managing director and CEO of Skoda Auto Volkswagen India said, “This initiative reflects our commitment to nurturing talent and promoting innovation in the Indian automotive industry. Such initiatives also create an opportunity for the realisation of futuristic ideas by building prototypes with out-of-box thinking without the fear of failure”.

Skoda Rapid cabriolet interior and exterior

Among the various customisations, the one that really draws attention is the Skoda badge on the bonnet that retracts with the push of a button. The Rapid Cabriolet also sports an LED lip light, yellow accents along the front bumper, doors and brake calipers. The standard exhaust has also been swapped in favour of a sportier one.

On the inside, one of the main challenges was mounting the seatbelts in the absence of B pillars – which is why they're mounted on the seats. The interior has been reworked into a sporty scarlet-red upholstery and the interior even sees the addition of a touchscreen infotainment unit.

Details of the engine specifications and gearbox haven't been revealed yet, but it could be the same as the regular Skoda Rapid.

The Skoda Academy's Azubi Student Car international project

Though this is the first Student Car Project by Skoda Auto Volkswagen India, internationally, the Azubi Student Car Project is now in its ninth iteration. The Skoda vocational students in Mladá Boleslav have been designing and building their dream car since 2014.

The Indian Academy is taking steps to regularise the Student Car Program and include it as a project in the student syllabus. The program will involve one cycle of projects every year, and the student selection criteria will reportedly be improved to make it more competitive. 

The Academy's Dual Vocational Training in Mechatronics is a flagship program that has been contributing to upskilling 10th-grade school students since 2011. This full-time 3.5-year course, adopted from Germany, focuses on developing talent to take up critical roles.