Skoda Kushaq

This is the most important new car for Skoda in many years. It is the first product to be part of their new ‘India 2.0’ strategy to develop India-specific models rather than bringing a product from their global portfolio and adapting it to the Indian landscape, as they always did before.

- Vivek Venugopal

Given our tax structure, most of the time when a manufacturer introduces an international model here, it is either too expensive for the masses or there is very little profitability for the manufacturer. And prices go up a lot during the lifetime of the car if the components aren’t localized.

The Kushaq is based on the MQB A0 platform which underpins the new Polo, Skoda Fabia, Audi A1, and other superminis. The India-specific MQB A0 IN platform has been stretched to make it more spacious. The big hump in the rear floor pan has also been removed meaning that there won’t be an all-wheel-drive version of the Kushaq here. It has almost 93 percent localization as of now.

The Kushaq has a shrunken Tiguan look all over it with clean Germanic lines. At 4.2 metres, it is about as long as a Creta and has the longest wheelbase (2651mm) in its class, but looks a size smaller because of the tighter skin. The front-end styling is similar to the Kamiq and has the characteristic Skoda look to it. The rear three quarters look more compact than the proportions suggest and the rear-end styling is very clean and simple. The 17 inches ‘Atlas’ wheels look neat and there are minor lashings of chrome on the car which every manufacturer thinks that we Indians like. Overall the styling is a ‘please-all, offend none’ affair and that’s half the job done.