A couple of years ago, I had attended the ‘Škoda Slavia covered drive’, a concept wherein the carmaker gives journalists the upcoming car to drive in the camouflaged form. Sitting next to me was their Managing Director, Zac Hollis, and I asked him what are the chances a compact SUV is coming. He just shrugged it off and replied that no plans currently but they are open to it if the demand is there. Funnily enough, I was aware that the manufacturer had indeed already started working on the Kylaq but it was my job to investigate and his job to deny. Fast forward a couple of years and it is a well established fact that the Sub-four meter crossover is the where the volumes are and the automaker is very keen to capitalise on it.
The car shares quite a bit of hardware from its elder siblings and it is based on the same ‘MQB-A0-IN’ platform which also underpins the Kushaq, Slavia, Taigun and Virtus. It was time to sample it on the track. The camouflage on the car did not give out much details but the design language is clearly inspired from the Kushaq. What is interesting is that the Kylaq carries the same width as the Kushaq which translates to a nice and wide cabin making it all the more practical. The Kylaq does look like a shortened version of the Kushaq. The interiors were covered too but the interior design too is very similar to the Kushaq. The front seats get powered adjustment along with seat ventilation, the second row also boasts of pretty decent legroom and shoulder room.
Although the final details are not out yet but we reckon that the Kylaq will offer the best in class boot space. The sole reason why Škoda kept the first drive on the track was to showcase their driving dynamics. Germans are known for dynamically involving cars and the carmaker wanted to showcase that in its full glory. Although the automaker insists that there is not much difference in the suspension and steering setup between the Kylaq and the Kushaq, the Kylaq definitely feels much more involving to drive. The key factor being the shorter wheelbase it sits on, giving it a Go-kart like feel.
The suspension is sprung on the stiffer side and the steering weighs up beautifully as the speeds pick up, much better than we have seen in the Kushaq. We had the luxury of pushing it on the limit on the track. High speed change of direction is well accepted and the Goodyear tyres offer stupendous amount of grip. The steering weighed up very well as the speeds picked up but it was still relatively easy to manoeuvre at low speeds. The track is offers a variety of corners, some high speed and free flowing, some tight while some sections of the track allow high speed driving along with quick changes in direction and elevation. The crossover performed exceptionally well and is clearly one of the most involving cars to drive in the segment but we will wait for a proper on road, real world test drive to come to a judgement.
Under the hood, it gets the tried and tested 1.0 litre TSI which will be offered with both a six speed AT gearbox (Torque Convertor) and a six speed manual transmission. Power and torque remain the same at 115 HP and 178 N-m respectively. Also, since the Kylaq is lighter than the Kushaq, it feels peppier due to a more favourable power to weight ratio. It will be offered only with one engine option across the range and even the lower variants will come with reasonable amount of kit. Petrol will be the only fuel option, while the competition does offer CNG as well. The manufacturer is not too keen on alternate fuels as they are targeting a fuel efficiency figure which will be amongst the top three in the segment, besides CNG integration with a turbo is not an easy job.
Initial impressions look promising. The ride quality on bad roads also seemed much better than what we see with its elder sibling. Even though the suspension is stiffly sprung, the ride quality was quite acceptable. Škoda will be the first ‘German’ (VW genes) to get into the compact SUV segment which is largely dominated a lot of Korean and Japanese players. The Kylaq is also touted to offer a lot of features, the details of which will be out on 6th November when it makes its global premiere. Škoda intent to price it quite competitively when it is launched and it truly has the capacity to shake up the compact SUV segment in India.