News has come that Skoda will soon be introducing their premium SUV, the Skoda Kodiaq in BS-VI form. This will mark the return of the Kodiaq in India, which was surprisingly phased out by Skoda earlier this year. There was speculation surrounding the future of the car and whether it will be given a BS-VI upgrade.
Now it looks certain of that to happen, with the BS-VI Kodiaq slated to come here next year. In fact, the updated Skoda Kodiaq will be the first of the products on behalf of Skoda coming under the Volkswagen Group’s ‘India 2.0’ plan. This ensures new model launches from the automaker as well as regularly updating their existing set of products here.
The return of the Skoda Kodiaq will also co-incided with that of the updated Octavia, which was also phased out earlier this year. Launched in 2017, the Kodiaq has not quite been able to bring in the numbers for Skoda in the premium SUV space. One of the reasons for that is the unavailability of a petrol motor on the car.
The Skoda Kodiaq was available here only with a 2.0 litre TDI diesel engine. Skoda have recently discontinued the motor due to the uncertainty that exists between diesel motors in India. Thus, the updated Kodiaq will now come with a 2.0-litre TSI petrol engine, which is seen on the new Superb as well as the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace.
This engine makes 186 BHP of power and 320 Nm of torque. It will be coming mated to a 7-speed DSG automatic transmission. Other than that, the updated Skoda Kodiaq is reportedly set to feature a few changes on both the exterior as well and the interior as compared to the model sold here before.
Though there is no news on it, we can expect something to surface once the updated Skoda Kodiaq gets unveiled. Skoda might also offer the Kodiaq with a couple of premium iterations, namely Scout and L&K. These are offered on almost all of its models available here and we might expect Skoda to further introduce it again on the Skoda Kodiaq.
These will be priced on par with the new Superb, which got launched here recently. The Superb retails at a price of Rs.29.99 lakh, with its L&K trim costing about Rs.32.99 lakh (ex-showroom, India). When launched, the updated Skoda Kodiaq will be rivaling the likes of the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour, Mahindra Alturas G4 and the MG Gloster.
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Also see: Skoda Kodiaq Scout now on-sale in India with a rugged look
GALLERY: BS6 Skoda Kodiaq
