Skoda set for Rapid mainstream move

Skoda’s all-new Rapid is expected to become the Czech brand’s biggest selling model in Australia once the super-sized small liftback – due here around March next year – is joined by the Rapid ‘Spaceback’ hatch in early 2014.

Priced from about $20,000, both five-door models will slot between the light-size Fabia hatch (which currently opens at $18,990 plus on-road costs) and the mid-size Octavia liftback (from $24,990) in Skoda’s local line-up.

Skoda will not reveal Australian sales targets for its first bona-fide small car and has not ruled out reducing the Fabia’s entry price to minimise sales substitution of its smallest model, but expects big things from its first model in the nation’s largest single vehicle sales segment.

“Rapid is Skoda’s first entry to the biggest segment, which now represents about a quarter  of the overall passenger car market,” said Director of Skoda Group Australia (SGA), Matthew Wiesner, at the Rapid liftback’s global launch in Bratislava, Slovakia this week.

“Once we have the hatch and all the appropriate engines and transmissions it should be our volume-seller.”

Available with fuel-efficient petrol and diesel engines and manual and automatic transmissions, the Rapid will be pitched directly at mainstream small cars like the Mazda3 (from $20,330), Toyota Corolla (from $20,990), Holden Cruze (from $21,490), Mitsubishi Lancer ($21,690) and Ford Focus (from $21,990), all of which cost the same in hatch and sedan form.

Mr Wiesner says the Rapid, which launches first as a liftback in Europe before being joined by the yet-to-appear hatch that will compete in 60 per cent of Australia’s small car market, will appeal to different buyers than Volkswagen’s smaller Golf hatch, which is currently priced from $21,990.

“We see very little crossover between Rapid and Golf,” he said. “Very few Golfs sold are base models – most are closer to $30,000.”

However, SGA expects the volume-selling Rapid variant to be the 90TSI, which is powered by the same 90kW/200Nm turbocharged 1.4-litre petrol engine found in the five-door Golf 90TSI Trendline (from $24,990).

Unlike the latter, though, the Rapid 90TSI will be available only with a seven-speed dual-clutch DSG automatic transmission. In this guise, the Rapid sprints to 100km/h in a claimed 9.5 seconds and returns combined fuel consumption of 5.8L/100km.

Opening the Australian Rapid range will be the six-speed manual-only 77TSI, powered by the same 77kW/175Nm 1.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine seen in the cheapest Fabia and Golf models. The 77TSI manual consumes 5.4L/100km and can hit 100km/h in 10.4 seconds.

Topping the Rapid range from launch will be the oil-burning 66TDI, powered by a 66kW 1.6-litre turbodiesel matched with both (five-speed) manual and DSG transmissions. Performance and consumption figures for the 66TDI are yet to be revealed.

In Europe, the Rapid will also be available with 55kW 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol, 63kW 1.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol and 77kW 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engines, all with manual transmissions only. The latter will return hybrid-like fuel consumption of just 4.4L/100km.

Reducing fuel consumption even further but unlikely for Australia will be four ‘Green tec’ versions fitted with idle-stop, regenerative braking and low-resistance tyres. At the other end of the performance scale, RS versions of both Rapid body derivatives are also on the cards, but there will be no Rapid wagon.

Abundant standard equipment will be a key Rapid feature, with all Australian models — including the entry-level Ambition and top-spec Elegance variants — fitted with twin front, front-side and side curtain airbags, electronic stability and traction control, ABS brakes, EDS electronic differential lock, front seatbelt reminders and height-adjusters, five three-point seatbelts, four adjustable head restraints and Bluetooth connectivity.

Apart from adding leather and chrome interior highlights, Ambition variants come with a Satin Black/Telluride Grey interior colour combination, while Elegance models come with a Satin Black/Stone Beige interior.

Other specifications for Australia’s Rapid remain unknown but in Europe, where a base Active variant will also be offered, options will include rear parking sensors, cruise control, climate-control, tinted side windows, heated seats, a multi-function steering wheel, tyre pressure monitoring, a hill-holder, satellite-navigation and 16- and 17-inch alloy wheels. Standard Ambition wheels in Europe are 15-inch steel rims with 185/60 R15 tyres.

But the Rapid’s biggest selling point – literally – will be its huge interior dimensions, which eclipse the original Octavia’s and dwarf those of many small cars. Skoda is touting best-in-class boot volume of 550 litres, extending to 1490 litres with the 60/40-split rear seats folded – 22 litres bigger than the Octavia’s and 54 litres bigger than the Holden Commodore’s.

Skoda also claims the five-seat Rapid family car offers class-leading rear headroom (972mm) and rear knee room (65mm), as well as 19 ‘Simply Clever’ features including four large door compartments, front seat pockets, an ice scraper in the fuel filler flap, a double-sided boot floor cover, two side boot compartments, a mobile phone holder and slots to secure the rear seatbelt buckles.

Skoda began working on the Rapid, which introduces Skoda’s new, more mainstream design language, four and a half years ago.

A ‘clean-sheet’ design based on the Fabia’s B-segment platform and comprising MacPherson strut front and ‘compound link crank-axle’ torsion beam rear suspension, the front-wheel drive Rapid liftback measures some 4483mm long, 1706mm wide, 1461mm high and rides on a 2606mm wheelbase.

The Rapid has a 50-litre fuel tank and base kerb weights (EU empty) ranging between 1135kg for the 55kW 1.2 to 1254kg for the 77TDI. Payload is 535kg.

Skoda’s seventh model line will be available in three solid exterior paint colours (Candy White, Corrida Red and Pacific Blue, one special colour (Sprint Yellow) and nine metallic colours – Platinum Grey, Brilliant Silver, Denim Blue, Rosso Brunello, Cappuccino Beige, Arctic Green, Rally Green, Lava Blue and Magic Black.

Built in Skoda’s main plant at Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic, the Rapid – a version of which was launched in India last year and will hit China in 2013 – will make its official premiere at the Paris Motor Show in September, before hitting Czech showrooms in October and rolling out globally by the first quarter of 2013.

It will be a key part of the Volkswagen brand’s drive to sell 1.5 million vehicles annually by 2018, and in doing so play a major role in the VW Group’s quest for domination of the world auto market by the same time.

Skoda says compact cars account for 36 per cent of the global car market and that 40 per cent of that are sedans, sales of which are expected to grow by 50 per cent by 2020.

In the first half of 2012, Skoda’s global sales were up 8.4 per cent on the same period in 2011, when the company posted a new record of about 850,000 sales.

Launched in Australia in October 2007, the world’s third oldest surviving automotive marque (behind Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot) more than doubled its sales here in the first half of 2012 to 1893, thanks largely to its three most recent model releases in the Roomster, Fabia and Yeti, which has this year overtaken the Octavia as its most popular model.

Skoda also more than doubled its Australian sales last year, when it sold 3500 vehicles, and should surpass the 10,000 mark by 2015 after it rolls out a new or facelifted model every six months on average over the next few years.

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