The reversible semiconductor-to-metal transition of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) makes VO₂-based coatings a promising candidate for thermochromic smart windows, reducing the energy consumption of buildings. We report on a scalable sputter deposition technique for fast preparation of strongly thermochromic YSZ/V_0.986W_0.014O₂/YSZ coatings, where YSZ denotes Y-stabilized ZrO₂, on conventional soda-lime glass at a relatively low substrate surface temperature (350 °C) and without any substrate bias voltage. The thermochromic V_0.986W_0.014O₂ layers and the antireflection YSZ layers were deposited using a controlled high-power impulse magnetron sputtering of a single V-W and Zr-Y target, respectively. A coating design utilizing a second-order interference in the YSZ layers was applied to increase both the integral luminous transmittance (T_lum) and the modulation of the solar energy transmittance (∆T_sol). We present the phase composition (X-ray diffraction) and microstructure (high-resolution transmission electron microscopy) of the coatings and their optical properties (spectrophotometry and spectroscopic ellipsometry). The YSZ/V_0.986W_0.014O₂/YSZ coatings exhibit a transition temperature of 33-35 °C with T_lum = 64.5 % and ∆T_sol = 7.8 % for a V_0.986W_0.014O₂ thickness of 37 nm, and T_lum = 46.1 % and ∆T_sol = 13.2 % for a V_0.986W_0.014O₂ thickness of 67 nm. The results constitute an important step to a cost-effective and high-rate preparation of large-area thermochromic VO₂-based coatings for future smart-window applications.