Skoda's Rapid will be coming to Australia, as motoring.com.au reported from the Australian International Motor Show , but it won't be sourced from the company's Indian production facility.
The new car will fill a hole between the larger next-generation Octavia and the current Fabia light-segment car and Skoda issued a release recently to the effect that the Rapid, based on the Mission L concept car (pictured) unveiled in Frankfurt last month, has commenced production in India.
According to Skoda's local Product Marketing Manager, Petr Beneda, the Rapid we will see here in 2013 will definitely come from a Czech factory.
"The car was introduced as the MissionL in Frankfurt…it's between Fabia and Octavia's successor in 2013," Beneda told motoring.com.au, who reconfirmed that the Rapid will definitely come to Australia — but not from India.
"So far — at the moment — all the local production in India, China, Kazakhstan, Ukraine; that's for the [domestic markets]. Everything that we bring to Australia... comes from Europe."
So the Rapid for Australia will be built in the Czech Republic — definitely — but that will result in a wait for Australian consumers.
"That will be the second half of next year... usually left-hand drive goes first and there's always a gap of three or four months for right-hand drive. For us in Australia you have to homologate the car and make it ADR [-compliant].
The timing works better for Skoda however. While the importer will certainly need a car to fill out the local product range between Fabia and Octavia, the current Octavia is not that much larger than the Rapid, so the new car will fit into the range better once the next-gen Octavia arrives — also in 2013. The enlarged footprint of the new Octavia will allow some wriggle room between the three models: Fabia, Rapid and Octavia. Around that time, Skoda will have a brace of models to suit the majority of new-car buyers — including SUVs for those of a pioneering spirit.
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