Our rendering artist Shoeb Kalania has come out with a sub-4m three-box vehicle on the Polo platform for the Skoda brand to re-enter the Indian B+ segment, as the Fabia hatchback has been discontinued. A top Skoda official had told a business newspaper that a sub-4m sedan is under consideration for India, which sparked this drawing.
Skoda officials rule out the Citigo for the Indian market as it is apparently very expensive. The only other platform to birth this product would be the VW Polo's PQ25 platform that Skoda has borrowed to produce the Rapid.
The Polo is 3.79 m long and that gives the Czech and German engineers a 20 cm room to work with. While an add-on boot in this measurement would seem quite invisible, Volkswagen would have to completely rehash the rear-end of the car and try a liftback design to meet the 'small car' mandates and give it differentiation from the next gen Fabia, expected in the Indian market next year.
Skoda currently has a single volume provider in their lineup (Rapid) and for the interim, a sub-4m model to take on the Hyundai Xcent, Honda Amaze, Maruti Dzire and the Tata Zest, which is a 30k unit/month market, appears like the best way to increment sales, as this segment is thus far unshaken by the overall market downturn.
Being a future model, we expect the new Skoda to have the same design vocabulary as the new Octavia and the European Rapid. This would mean a coupe-like silhouette, an upswept dynamic window line on the rear doors and a distinctive C-shaped lighting contour would find a spot on the car.
Under the fluff, Skoda would have to use either the Polo's 1.2-liter three-cylinder diesel engine or the upcoming 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine on the mainstay variants while the petrol variants would have to go with the 1.2-liter MPI unit. A 1.2L TSI with the 7-speed DSG automatic transmission can be considered if Skoda plans stretching the premium end of the lower-mid market.
