Skoda To Add Kylaq Sportline In September, Studies 1.5 For Performance Variant

Skoda Auto India will introduce a Sportline variant of the Kylaq in September and is separately studying whether a 1.5-litre engine can be fitted to its best-selling model, brand director Ashish Gupta told Autocar India.

The Kylaq remains the company's volume driver. It accounted for 3,443 of Skoda's 5,760 registrations in May 2026, close to 60 percent of the portfolio, even as that figure fell 30 percent from the previous May. The model is sold only with a 999cc, three-cylinder 1.0 TSI turbo-petrol engine producing 115hp. That single powertrain is now the constraint Skoda is working around as it weighs a sharper derivative.

The September addition will be a Sportline, which brings styling changes rather than a mechanical upgrade. Gupta said the sub-4-metre segment is defined by engine and vehicle size, which leaves little room for a performance car within the small-car tax bracket. "You can do something with the styling elements and give it a sporty touch, which we will be doing," he said, adding that the variant was being introduced because Skoda had seen significant demand for it from buyers.

A true performance version is a separate and unresolved question. Gupta said it would require a bigger engine, most likely a 1.5-litre unit, which would push the Kylaq beyond four metres of tax benefit. "I am sure customers would like to have the 1.5 litre in the Kylaq” he said. He described the larger engine as a research project under consideration, with the business case yet to be established.

The reference point sits in Skoda's European range, where the 1.5 TSI is the top engine across the brand's small cars. In the Fabia, Scala and Kamiq, the four-cylinder 1.5 TSI produces around 150hp, well above the Kylaq's current output, with the latest evo2 version offered at around 175hp for a special Fabia edition. The pricing gap is wide. The Fabia is the smallest and cheapest Skoda in Europe, starting at just over GBP 21,000 (around ₹22 lakh), while the Kylaq opens at Rs 7.59 lakh. That gap is what a locally built sub-4-metre model protects, and what a 1.5-litre Kylaq would likely forfeit.

Gupta said the volume of buyer interest in the question itself showed how much appetite there was for a faster Kylaq.