Skoda Kylaq, the latest product on sale from the Czech carmaker in India, is a major attempt by the Volkswagen Group company at revitalising its sales momentum in the country, where it continues to remain a marginal player, despite having a run of more than two decades.
In CY2024, Skoda Auto India’s volumes were pegged at 36,000 units – a notable 26% year-on-year (YoY) decline – thereby giving it a market share of less than 1 percent in an overall scenario where passenger vehicle retail volumes in India registered a 5.18% YoY growth to hit the 4-million mark last year. Despite the unabating demand for SUVs, which were the key drivers of this market growth, the Czech carmaker could not realise its full potential, particularly due to the underperformance of one of its two key models – the Skoda Kushaq midsize SUV.
Due to a fair number of shortcomings like smaller proportions compared to arch rivals such as the Hyundai Creta and Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, the 4.2-metre long Kushaq, which was introduced in July 2021 as part of Skoda’s ‘India 2.0’ revamp strategy, received an underwhelming response from a booming SUV market where customers sought more feature-packed and bigger offerings at competitive price points.
With petrol-only powertrains, a compact footprint, and rising competition, the Kushaq has only been able to appeal to a limited set of customers, despite its strong fundamentals and top-notch safety credentials. Where the segment leader Hyundai Creta averages 14,000-15,000 units every month, the Kushaq garners sales of around 2,500 units despite attractive customer-friendly schemes.
At 3,995mm long, the Skoda Kylaq rivals the likes of not just the Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Tata Nexon and Maruti Suzuki Fronx but also cars from other segments.
Skoda plots big play with first sub-4-metre SUV
To ensure the right product-market fit, Skoda has now introduced its latest offering in the form of the the sub-four-metre Kylaq SUV, which is a resized Kushaq and utilises the latter’s underpinnings of the sturdy, India-specific VW Group’s MQB-A0-IN platform. The move significantly widens the company’s canvas to aim for more volumes by entering a bigger sub-four-metre segment which commands a lion’s share of the Indian PV market.
Launched in December 2024 at an attractive price tag of Rs 789,000, ex-showroom, for the entry-level trim, Skoda has only commenced the deliveries of the Kylaq from January 27, with the top-end variant being priced at Rs 14.40 lakh, ex-showroom. This enables the Czech carmaker to straddle multiple segments within the sub-four-metre size category, and make a winning attempt with the Skoda Kylaq, which emerges as a do-it-all product.
With its 3,995mm length, the Kylaq rivals the likes of not just the Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Tata Nexon, and Maruti Suzuki Fronx, which are the key players in India’s booming compact-SUV market, but also gives a tough fight to the Maruti Suzuki Baleno and Hyundai i20 premium hatchbacks, as well as the Maruti Suzuki Dzire, and Honda Amaze compact sedans. The compact footprint of this segment of cars is what makes them most suitable in the Indian road environment, which witnesses higher-than-average traffic density.
In the current fiscal year’s first nine months, the compact SUV segment has already registered record wholesales of over a million units – 10,10,580 units, up 12% YoY (April-December 2024: 904,303 units) – and accounts for 49% of the total 20,48,720 utility vehicles sold between April and December 2024. This translates into nearly every second UV sold in India being a compact SUV.
With this large market in sight, Skoda Auto is targeting monthly sales of around 6,000-7,000 Kylaqs. To enable this, it is also expanding its sales network aggressively by 40%, aiming to grow it from the current 250 touchpoints to over 350 outlets by mid-CY2025. Skoda Auto India also aims to double its market share in India by end CY2025 with its foray into the sub-four-metre SUV segment.
Kylaq, which has six airbags and over 25 active and passive safety features as standard right from the base variant, achieved a top 5-star safety rating in the Bharat NCAP crash test.
Kylaq aces the Bharat NCAP test with five-star rating
With the structural integrity offered by the high-tensile strength materials deployed in the MQB-A0-IN platform, the Kylaq scores high on the safety front, which has emerged as a key evaluation criterion for the value-seeking Indian car buyers in the last few years. The Kylaq has received a full five-star rating for adult -and child-occupant protection in the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme or BNCAP tests (AIS-197) which also demand standard ESC, seat-belt reminders, and six airbags to qualify for the benchmark score.
The 189mm ground clearance and a tall stance ensure that ingress and egress are seamless, with the overall frontal visibility from the driver’s seat being excellent too, thereby aiding stress-free commuting in day-to-day city driving. The latest Skoda SUV in India also gets a tilt-and-telescopic steering wheel, ensuring appropriate driver ergonomics. A segment-best 2,566mm wheelbase is what makes the Kylaq offer plentiful room for a nuclear family, and sets it apart from its key competitors. The 446-litre boot space is also class-leading and coupled with the option of split-folding rear seats in higher variants, offers superior practicality.
Unlike some competitors in the segment, Skoda Auto India has offered large-sized, well-contoured seats that offer good lateral and under-thigh support to the occupants. The rear bench offers a good recline angle, complemented by a high ‘H-point’ which ensures that the occupant hip point is higher than the knee, thus aiding comfort over longer journeys. The large glass area, along with the single-pane sunroof, lets ample light inside the cabin for an airier feel. The ambience is also uplifted by a 10-inch infotainment screen, as well as a digital instrument cluster in higher trims.
A high seating position and tall-boy design aid visibility and ingress, while a large glass house and sunroof let light inside cabin for airiness. A slick, 10-inch infotainment system lends modern touch.
Strong driving credentials
With a distinct advantage in the form of a 1.0-litre gasoline-direct injection (GDI) engine, christened TSI or turbocharged stratified injection in VW Group’s nomenclature, the Kylaq has a technological edge over its chief rivals.
While the 1.0-liltre, three-cylinder TSI engine is the sole engine offering and devoids Skoda from tapping into the potential pool of buyers catered by more cost-effective naturally-aspirated offerings, such as the 1.2-litre engines in the Maruti Suzuki Fronx, or Kia Sonet, Skoda has tried to woo customers with its globally-renowned powertrain technology.
The engine produces 114hp and 178Nm of peak torque, and gets options of either a 6-MT (MQ200) or an Aisin-sourced 6-AT (AQ250), with the latter being calibrated to emerge as one of the most-refined combinations in the segment. With peak torque getting delivered between 1,750rpm-4,000rpm, the six-speed torque converter effectively masks the low-end turbo lag of the TSI mill, making city driving an extremely smooth affair with a strong mid-range performance.
Skoda claims fuel efficiency figures of 19.68kpl for the manual and 19.05kpl for the automatic-transmission-equipped variants of the Kylaq, which also gets an integrated starter-generator idle-start-stop system for enhancing fuel efficiency.
What complements the drivetrain are the Skoda Kylaq’s driving dynamics, which are led by a mature tuning of the suspension. With 16-inch wheels offered on the lower trims, and 17-inch rims on the higher variants, the suspension tuning strikes the right balance between ride and handling, with focus on good slow-speed comfort, as well as stability at high speeds. However, suspension noise could be well controlled inside the cabin.
With over 90% gross localisation, the Skoda Kylaq is a culmination of an array of made-in-India parts from renowned global component suppliers.
At upwards of 90 percent gross localisation with suppliers such as Aptiv and Autoliv supplying key components like the alternator tabs, and seatbelts, respectively, the Kylaq is still not the most attractively-priced car in the category, particularly when it comes to its fully-loaded variants. A low-quality reversing camera, and lack of a surround-view camera as well as ADAS, which is today being offered by several of Skoda’s competitors, also come across as big omissions.
However, with robust fundamentals, good driving dynamics, adequate creature comforts, and a compact footprint that is well suited for the urban Indian landscape, the Kylaq still promises plenty in a highly-competitive segment, and has the potential to give Skoda a renewed charge in the Indian PV market.