Skoda has elevated the dimensions of the brand new Fabia small hatchback and expanded security and luxury tools, however it is not going to provide a hybrid model to maintain down prices.
Skoda unveiled the Fabia online on Tuesday forward of its gross sales launch in Europe in September. A station wagon version will follow later.
The fourth-generation Fabia strikes to guardian Volkswagen Group’s MQB-A0 platform for the primary time, permitting the automotive to be 1110 mm longer than its predecessor at 4108 mm, creating additional room for passengers. The present Fabia, which debuted in 2014, makes use of VW Group’s PQ35 platform.
The elevated dimension offers the Fabia “extra space than our rivals,” Skoda CEO Thomas Schaefer stated in assertion.
The longer wheelbase at 2564 mm means the brand new Fabia is longer than Skoda’s 1996 Octavia compact automotive.
Skoda has chosen to not electrify the Fabia vary and can as an alternative provide gasoline engines solely. The rationale given for not providing even a mild-hybrid model was to maintain the worth down.
“As a model identified for worth for cash, if you electrify you begin to erode that due to rising prices,” a Skoda spokesman stated.
Entry variations will begin at round 14,000 euros, one other Skoda spokesman stated.
The Fabia will provide three-cylinder non-turbocharged gasoline engines with two energy outputs, and a three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline additionally with two energy outputs.
Essentially the most highly effective turbocharged engine with 110 hp is on the market with the choice of a 7-speed DSG automated gearbox.
A bigger 1.5-liter four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine is on the market with 150 hp and a DSG gearbox as normal.
The bottom-emitting Fabia has CO2 emissions of 113 grams per km, Skoda stated.
Know-how now supplied with the Fabia is just like that of the bigger Octavia and features a new free-standing touchscreen within the central dashboard as much as 9.2-inches in dimension.
Two small variations are supplied in lower-spec vehicles. The highest-spec Admundsen infotainment system contains gesture management.
A ten.25-inch “digital cockpit” display screen in entrance of the motive force brings VW Group expertise into the Fabia for the primary time and presents a spread of layouts.
Elective driving help expertise contains Skoda’s Journey Help for the primary time, which hyperlinks lane-keeping expertise with adaptive cruise management and different capabilities equivalent to signal recognition to regulate pace robotically.
The Fabia can also be obtainable with blind spot recognition and parking help which may take over the motive force’s steering work when parking.
Different options embrace heated steering wheel and heated windscreen choices.
The Fabia’s design is an replace of the present mannequin. The automotive has been given a extra emotionally interesting design with particulars equivalent to slimmer LED entrance lights and tail lamps that stretch onto the trunk lid.
The longer wheelbase additionally helped enhance the automotive’s look, Oliver Stefani, Skoda’s head of design, stated within the assertion.
“Because of its new proportions, our entry-level mannequin seems to be rather more dynamic and grown-up,” he stated
The automotive is probably the most aerodynamic in its class, Skoda stated, thanks to make use of of units equivalent to particular plastic trims on the alloys and energetic cooling shutters within the decrease entrance grille that shut when not wanted.
The Skoda Fabia was the No. 10-selling small automotive in Europe final yr with a quantity of 93,055, down 38 p.c, in response to figures from JATO Dynamics. It was Skoda’s second-best-selling mannequin final yr after the Octavia.
Skoda stated the Czech Republic was the Fabia’s largest single market with 16,280 deliveries in 2020, forward of Germany (16,054) and Poland (12,805).
The mannequin will proceed to be in-built Skoda’s Mlada Boleslav manufacturing unit within the Czech Republic.