By The compact SUV segment in India is growing at a good pace as most manufacturers compete for a pie of this segment. Skoda is absent in this segment but will soon change with the upcoming compact SUV. According to a new report, Skoda is developing a brand new compact SUV for India and emerging markets which is going to be based on the heavily localised MQB AO IN platform. This new compact SUV is going to be part of the India 2.5 project and Volkswagen will also introduce a derivative of this product.
To keep the price competitive, the upcoming compact SUV will use lots of components from Kushaq like seats, electrical components, suspension parts, and infotainment to name a few. The scale of economics is certainly going to be key as the overall cost will come down which will be beneficial for the company and it could reflect in the cost too. “Localisation is one of the major initiatives we had taken for this product and I’m sure we will be able to meet the market expectation with the pricing which will come out then,” said Piyush Arora, MD and CEO, of Skoda Auto Volkswagen India.
The latest reports indicate that the production of the compact SUV is likely to begin in January 2025. We can expect Skoda to reveal the model by the end of this year while the launch could take place at the 2025 Auto Expo and pricing might be announced at a later stage. The engine for the upcoming compact SUV will be the 1.0 L TSI engine, which already does duty on several products and could be mated to both manual and automatic gearbox. Skoda might not introduce a 1.5 L TSI engine as pricing may not be attractive.
