Skoda's new Octavia back on Indian roads - mydigitalfc.com

Skoda Auto India, part of Volkswagen group, is betting big on its third generation Octavia brand that would be launched in India next month ahead of the the festive season. "The new generation Octavia is the heart of our brand and we are betting big on it to spur sales," Sudhir Rao, managing director of Skoda Auto India, told Financial Chronicle. Based on Volkswagen's MQB (modular quer baukasten) platform, the new Octavia is bigger and more spacious than Laura that sold about 1,600 units in the first seven months of this year. Laura would be phased out gradually . Skoda Auto India, the fully-owned subsidiary of Skoda, had first unveiled Octavia 12 years ago, in 2001, and replaced it with the new Laura. Between November 2001 and October 2010, the first generation Octavia had sold 44,900 units. But worldwide nearly four million Octavias have been sold between 1996 and July 2013 — around 38 per cent of the brand's total sales in this period, making Octavia the undisputed best seller in the 118-year history of the company. It plans to increase sales to at least 1.5 million vehicles per year by 2018. "The Octavia range launched Skoda in the country 12 years ago and has enjoyed a cult status in India ever since. Now, with the new-generation Octavia, which will be introduced in India during the festival season, we promise all of this and much more," Rao said. The company's sales have been declining this year. In the first eight months of 2013, it sold 14,446 units compared with the 26,388 units it sold in the same period last year. At present, it has less than 1 per cent market share in the country, the company said. The new Octavia uses a newly developed petrol and diesel engines. The transmissions include modern manual gearboxes and the automatic DSG double-clutch transmission. The new Skoda Octavia is manufactured in the Skoda factory in Aurangabad in Maharashtra, where the Superb, Yeti and Laura are already being manufactured. Its fourth bestselling model Rapid is made at the Volkswagen plant in Chakan, near Pune. It, however, discontinued its hatchback Fabia about three months ago due to declining sales and high cost of production. michaelgonsalves@mydigitalfc.com via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHr26Eo4ek4QoRZHV-sKG04qSHRMw&url=http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/skoda%25E2%2580%2599s-new-octavia-back-indian-roads-590

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