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Skoda Octavia luxury version by Aug

Srinivas Krishnan

Skoda Auto, the Volkswagen-owned Czech automobile manufacturer, will be introducing a luxury ‘Elegance’ edition of its Octavia by August this year. The car has already passed the homologation requirements of the government.

The Elegance edition will have leather upholstery options, electronically-controlled climatronic HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) system, a six-CD changer, an option of three different 15-inch alloy wheel designs, special exterior paint and a revised ergonomic instrument cluster/display.

The car will be priced at around Rs 1.2 million ex-showroom, and will be available in both the existing petrol and diesel engine versions.

Following the Elegance option will be the top-end Laurin & Klement (L&K) Octavia, the highlight of which will be a 110-bhp, 1,900-cc turbo-diesel engine and bi-xenon headlamps.

The L&K Octavia has an electric sunroof, driver and front passenger airbags, climatronic, a Symphony sound system with eight speakers and a six-CD changer, and leather, wood and chrome trim all around. It will also have larger 205/55 16 inch radials.

The launch of the L&K edition is expected by the end of September, and will be priced between Rs 1.4 million and Rs 1.5 million, thus taking on the bigger D-segment cars.

Skoda India is, however, weighing over the launch of the powerful 148-bhp and 1,800-cc turbocharged petrol option.

“While the launch of the diesel L&K version is confirmed, we are not so sure about the availability of good quality fuel which the turbocharged petrol engine needs to perform well — hence the launch of the 1.8-litre petrol version remains a possibility for the time being,” said Bipin Datar, sales and marketing head, Skoda Auto India.

By November this year, Skoda is all set to get into the D-segment with its luxurious Superb through the completely built unit route.

The Superb, which was introduced to the world at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September last year, will come in the top-of-the-line Elegance trim and will feature both manual and automatic transmission options.

The Superb will have a choice of two power plants — a 193-bhp, 2800-cc V6, and a turbocharged 153-bhp 2500-cc diesel engine.

“The Superb will be extremely refined, and the engine options we are bringing in are bigger and more powerful than the Mercedes E-class — even then, expect it to have a pleasantly surprising price tag,” says Datar.

According to sources, the price of Superb could be around Rs 2 million. Meanwhile, Skoda has been in the process of strengthening its dealer network.

While new dealerships in Pune, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad are already operative, cities like Chandigarh, Kolkata, Kochi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Indore and Mumbai will get fresh dealers by the end of July.

The other cities where dealerships will be set up by the end of the year include Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow and Dehradun.

“We are looking at 17 dealerships and 27 service points across the country by the end of 2002,” said Datar.

He also said that their plant at Aurangabad is in a state of expansion as promised to the government and is in its next phase of ‘semi-knocked down Zero’, where new workstations have been set up to assemble engines and gear-boxes.

“Our plant’s capacity will go up from 25 cars per day to 30 soon. We expect to sell 6,000 cars by the end of this calendar year,” says Datar.

Skoda has sold 1,200 Octavias since March this year.

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