Fourth-Generation Skoda Octavia India Launch Next Month

Skoda India has confirmed that the all-new Octavia will be launching in the Indian market in April 2021. Skoda’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Zac Hollis, also confirmed that deliveries will be starting soon after. The fourth-generation Octavia has been being tested on Indian roads by the Czech automaker for a while now.

The fourth-generation Skoda Octavia is based on the VW group’s venerable MQB platform and is bigger than the outgoing model by 19 mm longer and 15 mm wider. This translates to a bigger cabin and more legroom for the rear passengers. The all-new Octavia is more of an evolutionary change and comes with a similar design language, but the quad-headlamps of the outgoing model has been replaced by a sleeker unit. The Octavia which was spotted testing in India looks exactly the same as the model sold internationally.

Over to the interior of the new Skoda Octavia, it has been thoroughly revamped and comes with an entirely different layout. The cabin gets a premium looking beige-black two-tone theme while there’s a new twin-spoke steering wheel with classy knurled scroll wheels for multimedia controls. The dashboard is now horizontally layered, with a 10.25-inch all-digital instrument cluster called the Virtual Cockpit. Most of the buttons have been binned for a touchscreen infotainment system with integrated Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Other features include a digital assistant, connected car technology, wireless phone charger, tri-zone climate control and more.

The Skoda Octavia will only offer petrol engine options when it launches. It will be powered by a 2-litre turbo-petrol which generates 190 PS of peak power. The automaker may also launch the 1.5-litre 150 PS turbo petrol engine as well. Both engines will be mated to a 7-speed DSG gearbox.

The Skoda Octavia will be a part of the VW group’s India 2.0 strategy of launch a slew of all-new vehicles in the Indian market in the next couple of years. Upon launch the Octavia will launch with the Hyundai Elantra and may be priced similarly around Rs 20 – Rs 24 lakh, ex-showroom. Its other competitor the Honda Civic has been discontinued in India