Yes, This Is A Skoda Superb Pickup Truck

Skoda has an annual tradition of letting students in its Vocational School mark the end of a year by creating some bonkers one-off creation. That’s brought us wonders like the overlanding Mountiaq, neon-clad Slavia roadster and Roadiaq camper.

This year, the school has been let loose on a Skoda Superb Estate and turned it into a pick-up truck with an electronically extending load bed. We’re sold already.

There’s a real purpose to it than ‘just because’, too. It’s to celebrate 130 years since Skoda was founded, which is why it gets the L&K 130 name, and pays tribute to  Skoda’s other line of business, bicycles.

With its rear hatch cut away, the load bed uses a rack-and-pinion mechanism to extend at the touch of a button. That allows for easy loading and unloading of race bikes, which are mounted to the car using off-the-shelf Skoda accessories. Oh, and there’s room for a third bike on the top thanks to the roof rack.

That’s not the only bike-friendly bit of engineering, though. The rear doors of the L&K 130 open along a sliding mechanism to allow it to be opened alongside a bike route without the risk of opening into someone cycling along. It looks strange, but the idea is great, we think.

Inside, the L&K 130 gets passenger-side display which can be used for tracking data – the idea being able to asses live telemtry or race conditions for team’s riders. There’s also a radio installed, too.

Oh, and the red, gold and black livery, which serves as a nod to the original Laurin & Klement logo. You’ll see that on the bonnet of the car in place of the modern Skoda logo.

Obviously, this has been designed as a one-off engineering piece rather than a production model, so don’t expect to find the retractable load bed on a Skoda options list anytime soon.