HomeCar News2021 Skoda Rapid Rider Launch Price Rs 7.79 L - Cheaper Than...

2021 Skoda Rapid Rider Launch Price Rs 7.79 L – Cheaper Than City, Verna, Ciaz

2021 Skoda Rapid Rider
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Due to high demand, Skoda India has re-launched the base variant of Rapid sedan

Last year, Skoda had introduced the Rider Trim on its mid sized sedan, Rapid. Post the lockdowns, the Rider Trim did extremely well and landed up doing record sales for the brand. Demand for the base trim of the Rapid was so high that around December’20, Skoda stopped taking in any more bookings of the Rider trim and later even removed the product from its website.

To compensate, Skoda had launched the Rider Plus variant, with an additional price tag of INR 50K. Earlier, the Rapid Rider was available for INR 7.49 lakhs while the Rider Plus trim was later launched at INR 7.99 lakhs. However, after almost a gap of 1.5 months, Skoda has re-introduced the Rapid Rider trim on its website and the same has been priced at INR 7.79 lakhs.

Value For Money

The Rapid Trim provided an amazing value for money quotient. It was more affordable than even some of the sub 4 metre sedans and offered majority of the essential features which one would expect in a mid-sized sedan.

Now, with an additional price tag of 30K, the entry-level Rapid is still one of the best value for money product in the market. The Rapid trim comes equipped with a 2-DIN audio system (which has Bluetooth connectivity), electric ORVMs, ABS, Dual front airbags, rear parking sensors and an automatic climate control. Below is the latest price list of 2021 Skoda Rapid, effective from Jan 2021.

2021 Skoda Rapid price list
2021 Skoda Rapid price list

Base variant of Honda City is priced at Rs 9.3 lakhs, that of Maruti Ciaz is Rs 8.31 lakhs and that of Hyundai Verna is 9.02 lakhs. This makes Rapid Rider the cheapest variant on offer in the segment. Under the hood, Rapid packs a 1 litre 3 cylinder turbocharged petrol motor which dishes out 108 hp and 175 Nm of peak torque. The engine comes mated to a 6-speed MT.

Future Plans

In the short term, it is good news for most buyers that the Rider trim of the Rapid is back. However, going ahead, Skoda has plans to discontinue the current generation Rapid. Instead, Skoda plans to introduce an all new larger mid sized Sedan for India later in 2021.

Competition

Earlier in December’20, Skoda India’s Head had confirmed that the next generation Rapid isn’t coming to India. Instead, Skoda will introduce a new sedan which will be based upon the MQB A0 IN platform. This new sedan will be competing with the likes of 5th generation Honda City, Hyundai Verna, Maruti Ciaz and VW Vento. There is also a possibility that Skoda would want to continue with the Rapid, despite the launch of the new sedan.

Rapid could land up becoming a good product for cost-conscious buyers while the larger sedan could attract buyers looking out for premium features. Both, Rapid and the larger sedan could go on sale parallelly, similar to the way Honda has been selling both, 4th and the 5th generation City together.

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