2020 Skoda Rapid Turbo variant was on display at the Auto Expo earlier this year
With the easing up of lockdown, economic activities have started to resume. Auto firms have restarted production, testing of vehicles and sales & service of vehicles. The only major missing cog in the wheel was launch of new models and it seems, this too is going to get fixed soon.
In an online event today, Skoda India launched 3 cars for the Indian market. These include the Skoda Karoq & Skoda Superb Facelift. The third car on the list is the 2020 Skoda Rapid, which has been launched at a starting price of INR 7.49 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi). This is about Rs 15k more than the Vento turbo 1 liter.
2020 Skoda Rapid Turbo – Price List
Rider Turbo – Rs 7.49 lakh (Colours – Candy White, Carbon Steel)
Ambition Turbo – Rs 9.99 lakh (Brilliant Silver, Carbon Steel, Candy White, Toffee Brown)
Onyx Turbo – Rs 10.19 lakh (Candy White, Onyx Blue)
Style Turbo – Rs 11.49 lakh (Brilliant Silver, Carbon Steel, Candy White, Toffee Brown)
Monte Carlo Turbo – Rs 11.79 lakh (Flash Red, Candy White)
All prices are ex-sh
The major highlight of the sedan is its new 1 litre petrol motor which is BS 6 emission norms compliant. This new 1 litre petrol engine is a turbo-charged unit which comes from the EA 211 family. With the launch of the 2020 Rapid, Skoda has discontinued the older powertrain options from the Rapid, which consisted of the 1.5 litre TDI & 1.6 litre MPI motors. The new 1 litre unit is capable of dishing out 110 PS of power and 175 Nm of peak torque. Mileage claimed is 19 kmpl.
Transmission option at the moment will be limited to just a 6-speed manual gearbox. However, as per reports, Skoda will launch a 6-speed torque converter unit too, but at a later date. What customers might miss out upon will be the good-old quick shifting 7-speed DSG.
Feature list on the Rapid is majorly identical to the one on the BS4 model. Key features include a 8 inch touchscreen infotainment unit which supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, cruise control, climate control, keyless entry, auto dimming IRVM etc. Safety kit comprises of ABS with EBD, rear-view camera, rear-parking sensors and 4 airbags.
Skoda has launched the Rapid in 5 different trims, namely Monte Carlo, Style, Onyx, Ambition and Active. Each trim comes along with a separate set of colour scheme options. Overall colour options on offer are Flash Red, Lapiz Blue, Toffee Brown, Brilliant Silver, Carbon Steel and Candy White.
Like before, major competitors of the Rapid will be cars like Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, Hyundai Verna Facelift, VW Vento and the soon to be launched 5th generation Honda City.
In global markets, the Rapid has been replaced by the Scala hatchback, which is based upon the MQB platform. Back in India, Volkswagen and Skoda have been working upon localizing the platform and introducing products based upon the MQB A0 IN platform. Once the platform is completely localized, it will bring down costs for VW-Skoda and the duo can plan more products based upon it. A good potential sedan could be a Scala based model or a model based upon the next generation Polo.
