Shame Kushaq Vs. Kamiq: Double the price in Europe as a tax for EU regulations and expensive energy

A piece of home on the street in Delhi - Škoda Kushaq, Indian Kamiq. Same platform, same engines, half the price. How is that possible? They do not have to have EU passports and mandatory assistants.

Škoda could be competitive, it can make good, nice, affordable cars - but unfortunately not anymore for the Czech customer. Except for the Indian. Let's compare them:

Skoda Kushaq Classic Plus (Indian base)

- price: approx. 11,700 EUR

- dimensions: 4.225x1.760x1.612

- engine: 1.0 TSI, 115k/85kw, 6-speed manual

- infotainment: 7" display

Skoda Kamiq Essence (EU basis)

- price: approx. 26,900 EUR

- dimensions: 4,241x1,793x1,534 mm

- engine: 1.0 TSI, 95k/70kw, 5-speed manual

- infotainment: 8.1" display

The wheelbase and ground clearance are the same. The Indian version is slightly narrower and taller, with a more powerful engine and a six-cylinder engine.

So what accounts for the double price difference between the two cars?

- The price of an employee's work in the Czech Republic, compared to India, contributes to the price of cars, but not fundamentally

- A much larger part of the price is the costs in the supply chain, expensive energy, bureaucracy, EU environmental requirements for the factory in Boleslav and subcontractor factories

- Another big chunk of the price is the mandatory assistants mandated by the EU, which don't have to be in the Indian car if the Indian customer doesn't want them (no one asks the European customer and the motoring journalists in the reviews state how to turn them off as easily as possible)

So it would be possible for a nice new car from Škoda to be basic, fully sufficient for a young family, to cost something like three hundred thousand instead of six hundred. Brussels would just have to abolish unnecessary regulation and not force the customer to do what he doesn't want. They would have to stop closing power plants and making energy more expensive with wars and sanctions. If the difference in the price of the car was only the cost of the labor of an Indian and a European, it would be a bit more expensive, but not twice as expensive.

Who will Brussels benefit from this? Consumers, nature? Hardly, because the motorist buys a used car instead of an expensive new car, due to the price of new cars, the fleet will be renewed later (in the Czech Republic, the average age of a car is 17 years)... and we will further undermine the competitiveness of European car manufacturers on world markets, or we will drive them to manufacture somewhere where they have sense.

Do you want our country and the rest of the EU to prosper? Don't read Ursula's phantasmagoria and Draghi's plans. Go and see how they do the same thing behind the threshing floors.