Crowning Crystal

The Kylaq is perhaps the most important volume driver to come out of Skoda India's 2.0 strategy since the Kushaq. We get behind the wheel and tell you what it's like

- Dipayan Dutta

India sold 25 lakh sub-four metre private vehicles last year. That's 28 cars sold every hour. Every hour, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's a massive market, and it's growing every year.

Even more interesting is that over 60 per cent of these are SUVs. It also means that manufacturers within the space can innovatively match their value offering to carve niches within the space. And when manufacturers get creative, you end up with specifically targeted products like the Kylaq and another Korean sub-compact SUV that we're also reviewing this month. In my mind, they aren't competitors but each represents a niche of the market that they intend to cater to on two poles of the spectrum.

Skoda is crystal clear about what they want the Kylaq to be; the driver's car of the segment, but they've done so without compromising on quality, ride or features on the inside, and staying price competitive. A lot is riding on its success in what is otherwise uncharted territory for the brand, not just in terms of market position but also in terms of the approach, with Kylaq emerging as the value offering in the segment.

Although a lot is based on how it looks, the Kylaq does a very impressive job of making a first impression. Before I saw the car in the flesh the Kylaq, I did think it was very visually similar to its mid-size sibling, but the reality is quite different.