Skoda Epiq: spending a day with a camouflaged prototype

You know those funny-looking camouflaged cars that occasionally make their way onto the Carwow website, or across your social media? Well those are pre-production prototypes, cars in the late stage of development, undergoing testing on the roads to make sure they’re up to scratch once on sale.

I spent hours staring at photos of these test cars as a kid, poring over magazines, trying to imagine what the final product would look like once it was revealed. You can imagine my excitement, then, being invited to have a go in one. I found myself in Porto, Portugal, driving the Skoda Epiq in the last stages of development – and yes – wrapped in a rather vivid disguise.

The point of the camouflage is, as you might imagine, to hide the car’s details. Not just from the general public, but from prying eyes, trying to nab spy shots behind a camera lens. There’s a whole industry dedicated to sneaking photos of these test cars in known testing hotspots, around factories, in the desert and in arctic conditions. I even managed to grab my own spy shots of the current BMW iX3 while in Norway at the start of 2025.

Car change? Carwow!

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*Savings are made up of the maximum dealer discount off RRP – subject to dealership, location and trim. Prices correct at the time of writing.