Skoda India to launch Fabia later this year

The Czech-based car manufacturer Skoda Auto through its Indian subsidiary Skoda India will launch the company's first volume generating small car, Fabia, later this year.

The car will adhere to the small car norms as specified by the union budget and thereby will benefit from the 16 per cent excise duty.

The Union Budget, due to be announced later this month, may further reduce the excise duty to 12 per cent from current 16 per cent for small cars. Currently cars, which are not longer than 4 meters in lenght and
has an engine of not more than 1,200 cc in size in case of petrol and 1,500 cc in case of diesel, qualify for the excise duty of 16 per cent.

Industry ananlysts believe that the government is even considering to reduce the lenght to 3.8 meters for a car to be called as a small car while keeping the engine specifications the same.

Shashank Vaid, senior manager -- marketing, Skoda India, said, "We will be launching the new Fabia in the Indian market in the second half of this year but the launch date is yet to finalised".

Skoda plans to launch the same Fabia in India which will be seen at the Geneva motor show in March this year. The car will boast of the smallest of the engine configurations ever to be seen in India having an engine size of more than 1 litre or 1000cc. The car will have be powered by a 3-cylinder petrol and 3-cylinder

diesel engine.

The only other car that has a 3-cylinder diesel engine is the Accent CRDi.

The Fabia will be available in a 1.2 litre petrol and a 1.4 litre diesel. The petrol Fabia will take on rivals such as the Zen Estilo, Swift, Chevrolet U-VA, Hyundai Getz and the diesel Fabia will battle with the diesel range of hatchbacks like the Swift, Getz and Tata Indica. Experts believe it to be priced higher than its competition.

Because the car will run on a 3-cylinder engine, industry experts believe the car to be very fuel efficient delivering a fuel economy of 14-15 kms per litre.

The car will be the company's fourth offering for the domestic market after it launched the entry level premium car the Octavia, the Laura and the premium car the Superb. It will be manufactured at the company's manufacturing plant in Aurangabad.

This will be the first attempt by the company to enter the domestic small car market which is primarily driven by small car sales having a market share of 77 per cent.