Skoda India pricing of the Fabia announced,not to discontinue the Octavia as planned earlier

Skoda India have announced pricing details of the fabia and suprisingly skoda announced it would take on the honda city and the sx4. Why this comparison of a hatch and a sedan,because at these prices skoda knows it needs to attract people going in for the C-segment sedans rather than try to garner market share from the existing premium hatches which in comparison are much more cheaper.Skoda surely is aware that In India sedans are considered a better alternative than hatches it is upto skoda to change that perspective.

Skoda Auto Chairman Detlef Wittig told Indian journalists on the sidelines of the Frankfurt Motor Show that the company would launch Fabia in the price band of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh, in petrol and diesel variants and would compete with the Honda city and the Maruti SX4. Skoda will launch the compact car with up to 10 per cent local content to begin with and raise it to 30 per cent by the end of the first year. Production will begin by the end of October this year and the company will have 500 cars ready by the time of the launch.The company plans to produce 20,000 units of Fabia in the first year.

Even the diminishing performance of Octavia has not stopped Skoda from continuing to manufacture the car.“We sold 65,000 cars last year in several markets and we have seen higher growth in 2007, so we don’t plan to phase out the car even in 2008, as we had originally intended to do,” Dr Wittig said.

Skoda plans to launch an all new superb in India by August-September 2008.

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Skoda trying to cash in on the premium[yes that's true] branding it has created for itself in India