The Czech carmaker showcased the Vision IN Concept at the Auto Expo 2020, which is the concept version of an India-bound small SUV to rival Kia Seltos and Hyundai Creta
So far, the sales performance of Skoda India has been nothing to write home about. So far, every vehicle from the carmaker has been only mildly successful, at best, and has pretty much failed to bring the volumes to the carmaker. Its largest selling vehicle, the Octavia, is a D1-segment sedan, which means it caters to a very small fraction of the Indian car buyers, and hence, its sales figures remain confine to triple digits on a monthly basis.
Soon, however, things might change as the company has planned a slew of products for the Indian market. Zac Holis, Director – Sales, Service an Marketing, Skoda Auto India, revealed last year that his company is planning to launch as many as six new models over the next couple of years, with the upcoming set models including the production version of the Vision IN concept SUV.
The upcoming SUV is the first product from the company’s India 2.0 strategy that will aim to help the carmaker consolidate its position in the market. The new model is underpinned by the MQB A0 IN platform that will be shared with other India-bound models from Skoda and VW. The new architecture, which is a variant of the highly publicized MQB platform, will help its carmaker price the vehicles realistically.
The MQB A0 IN platform has almost 90% of localization, which means it will help the carmaker price its products very competitively. In the initial phase, the new platform will be shared between the production-spec Vision SUV and the VW Taigun. Before launching the new small SUV, the company will commence its new car onslaught with the Karoq.
The Skoda Karoq will be positioned below the Kodiaq and will be a direct rival to the likes of Jeep Compass. The company is also working on bringing the next-gen Octavia to our shores. Other than this, it’s also working on facelifts of the existing models to keep the ball rolling until the full model replacements arrive with MQB A0 IN architecture.
For now, bookings for the BSVI Skoda Rapid are already underway and the price announcement will take place soon after the nation-wide lockdown is lifted. The updated sedan features a 1.0-litre TSI turbo-petrol engine, while all earlier engine options (read: 1.2 TSI, 1.6 MPI and 1.5 TDI) won’t be offered in the BSVI era.