The Enyaq iV, originally supposed to launch in 2024, would have been Skoda’s first electric offering in India. While it has been significantly delayed, Skoda India’s brand director, Petr Janeba, said, “Our first electric SUV is coming by September latest” while speaking to our sister publication, Autocar Professional.
Skoda’s first EV in India: what will it be?
What’s interesting is that Janeba did not confirm if the Enyaq iV will be the first EV after all. The Enyaq has been on cards for India since 2023, in which time it has made a couple of appearances at the Bharat Mobility Show, and has also been spied testing on our roads on several occasions. But while the brand was still evaluating its EV strategy for India, the Enyaq even got a mid-lifecycle update globally. And no, it is not even the updated Enyaq that’s confirmed to come to India.
“We now have the Elroq which is also based on the MEB platform. So, the Elroq, Enyaq and the Enyaq Coupe are three cars all based on the same platform. We will take the final call on which of these three will be coming to India after the EV policy from the government is finalized by March 2025,” explained Janeba.
The Elroq, which was revealed in October last year, is slightly smaller at 4.49meters as opposed to the 4.65-meter Enyaq. It, too, was showcased to the public at this year’s Auto Expo.
Following meeting with stakeholders, the Centre is expected to finalize the draft guidelines on the upcoming revised EV policy by March 2025 to give it its final shape. The new EV policy was announced in March last year.
The EV policy proposed significant tax cuts on imported electric vehicles if the carmaker commits a minimum investment plan for setting up EV manufacturing in India using local resources. The import duty on EVs by foreign carmakers will be slashed to 15 percent from the current 70-100 percent, provided the vehicle prices do not exceed $35,000 (approximately ₹29 lakh).
Whether it’s the Elroq or the Enyaq, they will come as full imports. However, Skoda seems to be holding back to properly asses the incentives of the EV policy given that the carmaker has already begun development on an localised, India-specific EV platform along with Volkswagen for its future products.
Skoda Kodiaq launch in Q2 2025
In the meantime, Skoda India is also gearing up to introduce the second-gen Kodiaq in India in the second quarter of 2025. “We will begin production of the second-gen Kodiaq by end of February,” said Janeba. The company will bring the new-gen Kodiaq as completely knocked-down units (CKD) to be assembled locally. The older generation Kodiaq in its loaded L&K variant is priced at Rs 40.99 lakh (ex-showroom) in India, so expect the new-gen SUV to have a slight premium over this.
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