Skoda Auto India announced that the company has commenced the production of the fourth-generation Octavia in the Indian market. Furthermore, the first unit of the fourth-generation Skoda Octavia has rolled off the Shendra production line in Aurangabad. The first unit of the all-new Skoda Octavia is the Laurin & Klement model wearing the celebratory Lava Blue colour and pays homage to the founders Václav Laurin and Václav Klement as well as the brand 125 years of heritage.
The all-new Skoda Octavia will make its market debut in the coming weeks before the end of April 2021 with deliveries commencing shortly after the market launch. Skoda launched the first Octavia in 2001 in the Indian market and since then the brand has sold more than 100,000 units of the car in India. Around the globe, Skoda has produced about 6.5 million units of the Octavia in manufacturing facilities including India, Russia, China and Kazakhstan.
Now in its fourth generation, the Skoda Octavia was revealed in the international market and features a new design with a new sleeker front fascia, slimmer headlamps as the brand axes the typical four-eyed look, new hexagonal radiator grille with vertical slats, a wide air dam with LED foglights, LED DRLs, LED headlamps & new Skoda Design LED taillamps with new light signatures. The new Skoda Octavia is also likely to feature a new Skoda two-spoke steering wheel, fully digital instruments cluster, new generation touchscreen infotainment system with the latest-generation telematics, shift-by-wire gear selector, multi-zone climate control, and a plethora of active and passive safety features.
The brand has not yet revealed the powertrain specifications but speculations are that powering the Skoda Octavia is a 1.5-litre TSI turbo-petrol engine that makes 150 PS of power and 250 Nm of torque. Higher-spec variants are also likely to come with a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine with 190 PS of output, but the brand is not likely to introduce a diesel engine on the Octavia anytime soon.
The Skoda Octavia competes with the likes of the Hyundai Elantra in the Indian market. In the Chinese market, Skoda has also introduced the 2021 Octavia Pro, a long-wheelbase premium sedan that is 64mm longer than the standard car.