Skoda Octavia RS 230 arriving Q3

Skoda boss Michael Irmer has revealed that the brand's Octavia RS 230 will go on sale in Australia around September or October of this year.

It will be a limited-edition model, and numbers will likely be limited all the more by whatever demand there may be for the car in manual-transmission form only.

"We plan to bring it in the second half of the year – late quarter three or early quarter four probably," Irmer told motoring.com.au during the launch of the new Superb this week.

"We will only have access to a manual gearbox, and I don't expect that the demand would suggest a continuous supply of that variant.

"Australia in that space is probably 90 per cent DSG – or automatic gearbox.

"It's interesting, definitely, from a product concept. We're getting more traction with the DSG gearbox available."

Unwilling to commit to a number without knowing more about the possible consumer demand for the car, Irmer explained that the first batch would be at least 50 units, because less than that number would be commercially unsustainable.

"For 50 or a hundred there are always enough people there, but also when the numbers are less than that we wouldn't be running it in the first place. So we only do it if we have a certain critical mass, but I'm sure we'll have that… but I haven't made a prediction because we haven't made the call yet.

"I normally don't talk about sales predictions," He said.

Irmer says that it's not yet possible for a customer to walk into a Skoda dealership in Australia and place an order for the RS 230. But he does hold out the possibility of a consolation prize if buyers miss out due to a Boxing-Day-sale type of stampede for the RS 230.

"We'll announce it as soon as we have it, and then we'll also have more information in terms of how big is our initial batch going to be. And then we'll learn from that initial batch of vehicles whether it's worthwhile running another batch at a later stage or not."