Skoda Octavia’s 2013 model was unveiled by the company on the 12th of December in the last year and it commenced with the production of this car just a week later. Now a new model of Skoda has been seen test several times driving in Pune as well as in Bengaluru. Thus it may happen that Skoda will launch its new sedan in the next month by 9th.
Skoda Auto that we see today has a long unbroken history and is one of the oldest automobile manufacturing companies in the world. Skoda works, a world renowned arms manufacturer had acquired the Laurin Klement factory in 1925 to expand its non arm production. Since then the vehicles are being produced with the tag of Skoda. In the year 1990 the Czech government brought in Volkswagen group to support Skoda automobile. In the year 1991, VW purchased 30% shares in Skoda. This was followed by a 60.3% acquisition in the year 1994 which was followed by a 70% acquisition in the year 1995. Skoda today is a fully owned subsidiary of VW group.
Skoda Octavia, a small sized family car, has been produced by the company since 1996. So far 3 generations of Octavia have been manufactured. The most recent model is the 3rd gen of Octavia which as been launched so far in some European nations only. In India, presently we have the 2nd gen model which is named as Laura by the company to differentiate it from the first gen model. Laura will soon be replaced by the 2013 Octavia. At present, prices for Skoda Laura have been cut down to make it more competitive.
This highly anticipated new model of Octavia is inspired by the Vision D concept and is built on the VW MQB platform which will be utilized by VW for its future ventures as well. This Octavia will share a lot in common with the 7th gen VW Golf.
This new model will be available with a total of 8 engine options which include 4 diesel and 4 petrol engine options. Talking about the petrol run models, the basic models will have a 1.4 TSI engine with 2 different power outputs of 120 bhp and 138 bhp. The upper end models will have a 1.8 TSI engine churning out a power of 177 bhp while the high performance vRS version will have a 2 liter TSI engine. The diesel run models will have a TDI engine of 1.6 liter capacity giving an output of 103 bhp and 108 bhp. There will also be a TDI engine of 2 liter capacity pumping out a power of 147 bhp and 181 bhp. The cars will offer 2 sets of Manual transmission as well as a 7 speed DGG Tronic auto transmission.
As we said earlier, this model will replace the 2nd gen Laura in the Indian market. Skoda might also launch the new high performance vRS variant of Octavia in the early 2014.
The new Octavia will be offered at a price of Rs 14 lacs to Rs 18.5 lacs. It will offer a competition to Chevrolet Cruise, Toyota Corolla Altis, VW Jetta, Renault Fluence and Hyundai Elantra
# Please note that the launch on August 9 is as per our expectation. The company has not yet revealed an official launching date for 2013 Skoda.