Skoda may launch the 2013 Octavia in India on August 9

Skoda may launch the 2013 Octavia sedan for the Indian market on August 9. The car was first revealed on the 12th of December last year by the Czech automaker and then eventually put into production at their factory the Czech Republic a week later. It has been spied testing most in an undisguised form testing outside Pune on multiple occasions and once in Bengaluru. 

The design for the 2013 Octavia has been influenced by the Vision D concept while its features and underpinnings are based on the Volkswagen’s MQB platform, which will is also support most future models of Volkswagen group. The new Skoda Octavia will be powered by the same set of mills that are present in new seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf hatchback.  

Skoda will be offering this new model with choice of four petrol and four diesel engines. The petrol range includes 1.4TSI in two states of tune – 120bhp and 138bhp. The bigger units include the 1.8TSI pumping 177bhp and 2.0-litre TSI for the vRS version. The diesel options are 1.6-litre TDI developing either 103bhp or 108bhp, along with 2.0-litre TDI available in 147bhp and 181bhp guise. Transmission options are expected to include two sets of manuals as well as the seven-speed DSG automatic gearbox. 

The Skoda Octavia is expected to replace the Laura sedan in the Indian market. We also believe that Skoda will bring to India the recently launched high performance Octavia vRS sedan in the early part of next year. 

It is expected that Skoda will price the Octavia in the range of Rs 14-18.5 lakh where it will compete with the Toyota Corolla Altis, Chevrolet Cruze, Hyundai Elantra (1.8 SX MT onwards), Renault Fluence as well as the Volkswagen Jetta (Trendline diesel onwards). 

Edit: We may have jumped the gun a little when we said that Skoda is launching the 2013 Octavia on  August 9. It is not confirmed as yet but we hope that they will launch the car on August 9 as we would love a chance to get behind the wheel.