Skoda Kushaq Ambition variant loses climate control system

The ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips has impacted several industries, especially vehicle manufacturing companies. This unfortunate phenomenon has either forced the carmakers to slow down their production volumes or to eliminate some key features from their vehicles. The carmakers in India have also suffered the brunt of this shortage, and have made subsequent changes to cope with this problem. The latest name on the list is Skoda, which has omitted a crucial feature from its popular offering, Kushaq.

In a recent event, Skoda has silently deleted automatic climate control from the mid-spec ‘Ambition’ variant in Kushaq’s lineup as per T-BHP. The Ambition variant, which is slotted between the entry-level ‘Active’ and top-spec ‘Style’ variant, now comes with manual AC with three rather basic-looking rotary controls. Earlier, this variant used to get a touch-sensitive panel for the automatic climate control, which now is available only in the top-spec ‘Style’ variant.

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It is not the first time a feature is removed from this mid-spec Ambition variant of the Skoda Kushaq. A couple of months ago, Skoda had omitted auto-foldable outside rearview mirrors from this variant, which now gets only manually-foldable mirrors in its place. The other two variants, ‘Active’ and ‘Style’, continue to be the same as they were before.

No change in price

While Skoda has made these changes to the ‘Ambition’ variant of the Kushaq silently, it has not changed the prices of this variant. The Skoda Kushaq Ambition variant continues to cost Rs 12.79 lakh for the manual version and Rs 14.19 lakh for the automatic version.

The ’Ambition’ variant of the Skoda Kushaq is available only with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine that produces 115 PS of maximum power and 178 Nm of maximum torque. This variant is available with both 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic transmission choices. This powertrain is also available in the other two variants, ‘Active’ and ‘Style’.

In addition, the top-spec ‘Style’ variant is also available with a more powerful 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine as an optional powertrain. This engine is on offer with both the choices of a 6-speed manual and a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and features cylinder deactivation technology for optimal fuel efficiency. This engine can produce a maximum power output of 150 PS and a peak torque output of 250 Nm.

In addition to these variants, Skoda is also working on a ‘Monte Carlo’ edition, which will come as the new top-spec variant of the Kushaq. The new Skoda Kushaq Monte Carlo variant will come with a slew of additional cosmetic highlights while retaining the current powertrain options.

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