Skoda Rapid facelift to be launched tomorrow

Skoda is ready with its second launch of the month – a facelifted Rapid sedan. Its first launch this month was the crossover Yeti. 

Since it is a midlife facelift, it is not expected to carry many changes to the exterior but under the hood there will be some change. The exterior has been more sportier. The updated Rapid comes with an all-new diesel engine and a dual clutch automatic gearbox, improving the overall appeal of the vehicle. The new diesel unit is basically a downsized version of Volkswagen’s 1.6-litre TDI engine that has been around for many years now. Displacing 1498cc, this engine develops the same amount of power as the old 1.6-litre unit. As a result, the figures remain the same at 105bhp of power and 250Nm of torque. Also new for the Rapid is the 7-speed DSG automatic gearbox currently used in the Vento TSI and the Polo TSI. 

Sudhir Rao, MD of Skoda India had said a few months ago, "We are basically looking at the Rapid as it is currently configured and how we can modify that and make it, still a Skoda, but yet a little bit more Indian. Depending on how the results of that pan out in the next six months, we will look at applying some of those same approaches to other variants." 

Since this version brings more changes to the engine and gearbox, we are expecting Skoda to launch a more updated variant of the Rapid sometime later, where it will have pronounced changes to the exterior and interior. The Skoda Rapid competes with the facelifted VW Vento, Honda City, the facelifted Fiat Linea and the upcoming Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. We expect the Skoda Rapid to be priced between Rs 7.10 lakh to Rs 9.61 lakh. Keep following us for more updates tomorrow.