GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Facelifted Skoda Fabia revealed

The Volkswagen Group's Czech outfit Skoda will spring a surprise at Geneva by ditching diesel power for its facelifted Fabia hatch and wagon, which goes on sale in Australia in October.

Instead, the upgraded small hatch will arrive in Geneva with a range of 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engines, with power ranging from just 44kW and 55kW from the base, multi-point fuel-injected versions.

Even the more powerful turbocharged 1.0-litre engines deliver 70 and 81kW respectively and, critically, are fitted with particulate filters, an exhaust scrubbing technology more commonly found behind diesel engines.

The diesel mainstay of the outgoing Fabia range was a 1.4-litre four-cylinder unit, but Skoda is now insisting its petrol engines are as clean and economical as the diesel was.

Five- and six-speed manuals are the standard transmissions for the entry-level versions, though the 81kW car has the option of a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Its freshened interior design features a redesigned instrument cluster and an upgraded 6.5-inch infotainment system, complete with integrated Android Auto and Apple Carplay.

The rear seats now have USB ports as standard, while Skoda now fits an LED torch into the hatch area of the wagon version.

Some other Skoda touches include an ice scraper built into the fuel filler cap, and it has added an in-built tyre tread-depth tool to it, too.

It integrates some of the driver assistance technology from the rest of the range, including cross- and rear-traffic alerts to warn of impending crashes when reversing out of car parks, a blind-spot monitor and automatic high beam, dimming by itself when it detects oncoming cars.

Skoda has sold 500,000 examples of the current Fabia globally, and more than four million overall since 1999.