The Skoda Felicia was sold as a ute in Europe throughout the late 1990s to 2001, and its its latter years it inspired the bright Felicia Fun, complete with two folding seats in its tub.
It never gained mainstream popularity with just 4215 examples produced, but is seen as a cult icon of the brand’s late 20th century lineup, before it started to get truly serious under the ownership of Volkswagen.
Now almost 25 years on, the Felicia Fun has been resurrected of sorts, thanks to designer Julien Petitseigneur and Skoda’s Vision 7S concept.
The concept electric SUV’s second- and third-row seats have been removed in favour of an uncovered tub, complete with a sailplane sports bar and a rear spoiler over the tailgate.
At the front is Skoda’s new-generation ‘Tech-Deck Face’, complete with a closed-in grille, T-shaped LED headlights and smooth lines.
The LED tail lights have also been converted from red to pink, a bright contrasting colour against the dark yellow bodywork, an homage to the original Felicia Fun’s colour palette.
Inside the cabin adopts a full-width dashboard display, with graphics inspired by retro video games and CRT monitors, rather than more modern LED units.
While the finished product was the result of Petitseigneur’s physical craft, he admits to having used “AI tools” for inspiration.
“I saw it as an opportunity to experiment with AI tools,” he said.
“I researched the car, then tested different prompts and tweaked them in AI to create initial concepts that captured the spirit of the original. This allowed me to explore possible directions quickly and decide how to proceed.
“AI outputs are always quite rough - more like outlines. I applied my own style to the chosen concept and refined it thoroughly.
“I worked for about two weeks, roughly three hours each evening after work. Compared to a typical project that takes years to complete, it’s a short timeframe, but I learned a lot and found it relaxing in its own way. After all, the Felicia Fun was always a car for leisure.”
In June, Skoda’s design students converted a Superb wagon into a pseudo dual-cab ute as the ultimate bicycle carrier.
Like that earlier effort, there’s no plans to put the Felicia Fun into production.
