VWORTH THE WAIT

The Skoda Kushaq and VW Taigun promise great things in 2021, but more new cars from Skoda-VW have us excited for 2022 — a more premium Rapid replacement, Vento replacement, and to top it off, the return of the VW Touareg!

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India 2.0 is shaping up to be a gamechanger for Volkswagen and Skoda India as planned, with two new mid-size SUVs coming our way, and two new sedans on the localised MQB-A0 IN platform that promise to move the segments forward, and the return of the full-size Volkswagen Touareg!

Now, we know what the MQB-A0 IN platform will bring to the Skoda Kushaq, and VW Taigun by extension, having sampled a Kushaq prototype earlier this year. And that makes us very excited for the next two models — larger, more premium notchback-style replacements for both the Skoda Rapid and VW Vento, and closely related to international models, the Euro-spec Rapid and South American Virtus respectively. As for the new Fabia and Polo, there’s a high possibility we’ll see them too, but only after the sedans, likely by 2023 or later.

Skoda will rename the Rapid to reflect the more premium positioning, and the company’s already registered the name ‘Slavia’ in India. The Slavia name tag carries a lot of weight on its shoulders, being what Skoda founders Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement sold their first bicycles under. It’s also the name of a Skoda concept car created by Skoda’s design school graduates in 2019 based on the Scala, so there’s a tie-in there to a more premium model in the Skoda line-up. Volkswagen, on the other hand, will bring the Virtus name tag on the model sold internationally to India to help differentiate the larger sedan.