Skoda will be launching the Kushaq on June 28th. It is Skoda’s first product under INDIA 2.0 project that was announced at the Auto Expo 2020. Zac Hollis, Skoda’s director of Sales, Service & Marketing has confirmed that the test drives of the new mid-size SUV will be available in the first week of July while the deliveries of the Kushaq will also commence in July. The dealerships will start accepting the bookings from June 28th itself.

The Kushaq will be going against a lot of cars. It will have to compete against the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross, Renault Duster, Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Nissan Kicks, MG Hector and the Tata Harrier. It will also go against the upcoming Volkswagen Taigun with which Kushaq will share its underpinnings.

The Kushaq is based on an entirely new platform that has been developed for India to save costs. It is called MQB A0 IN. It is based on the global MQB AO platform that underpins a lot of vehicles in the international market. Skoda has also been able to achieve a localization rate of 95 percent which is quite commendable. This should help in pricing the new SUV competitively in the Indian market.

There will be three variants on offer, namely Active, Ambition and Style. There will be two engine options on offer. There will be a 1.0-litre TSI and a 1.5-litre TSI. Both the engines will be offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard and there will also be automatic transmissions on offer.

The 1.0-litre TSI will be offered in all variants whereas the automatic variant will be offered only with the Ambition and Style variant. Whereas, the 1.5-litre TSI will be offered only in the top-end Style variant. Both the manual gearbox as well as the automatic transmission will be available in the Style variant. The 1.0-litre TSI is the base engine whereas if you consider yourself an enthusiast then you would like to have the 1.5-litre TSI which will be priced higher than the 1.0-litre TSI.

The 1.0-litre TSI produces 115 PS and 175 Nm. It will be offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. The 1.5-litre TSI on the other hand is much more powerful as it produces 150 PS and 250 Nm. It will be offered with a 6-speed manual gearbox and a 7-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox.

Kushaq looks handsome on road and has a good road presence. The SUV has been spied numerous times on our Indian roads that too without any camouflage. It comes with LED projector headlamps up-front and sleek LED tail lamps. You would be able to see some of Skoda’s design elements in the Kushaq. There are newly designed 5-spoke alloy wheels and roof rails too.

With a ground clearance of 188 mm, it should be able to handle bad patches of roads. Also, it has one of the best wheelbases in the segment which should translate to good cabin space for the occupants. There are also a good amount of features on offer. The Kushaq is expected to start at Rs. 10lakhs ex-showroom and go all the way up to Rs. 17 lakhs ex-showroom.