New Delhi:
Introduced in 2011, the Rapid marked Skoda Auto’s foray into the popular C-segment. And now, the Skoda Rapid has reached one lakh unit production milestone in India. The 100,000th unit was top-of-the-line Rapid Monte Carlo and Skoda Auto India rolled out the car at its manufacturing facility in Chakan, Pune.
Zac Hollis, Director – Sales, Service and Marketing, Skoda Auto India said "The RAPID continues to offer a compelling combination of the brand’s emotive design, exquisite interiors, leading safety as well as intelligent connectivity features. The production milestone is a testament to its strong equity among discerning customers in a dynamically evolving automotive market like India. With this accomplishment, we commit a stronger product portfolio and enhanced ownership experience - ascertaining, Peace of Mind comes standard with a Skoda."
The Rapid is the successor of the Skoda Fabia. On the engineering front, the Skoda Rapid is available with the 1.6-litre petrol along with the 1.5-litre diesel also on offer. Both the powertrains are mated to a 5-speed manual as well as a 6-speed torque convertor automatic or a 7-speed DSG.
On the competition front, the Skoda Rapid is up against Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, Honda City, Volkswagen Vento and Hyundai Verna in the Indian market. Prices for the Rapid start at Rs 7.99 lakh going up to Rs 13.99 lakh (all prices, ex-showroom Delhi).
It is to be noted that the Skoda Rapid Monte Carlo, the car was re-launched in India in February 2019 by the carmaker following a trademark issue with a clothing firm and now comes at a starting price of Rs 11.39 lakh (ex-showroom, India).
In addition, Skoda India is also working on the next generation Rapid that is part of the company's Volkswagen India 2.0 product plan. The new model will be based on the automaker's MQB A0 platform developed for India and will see an all-new model with more local content replacing the current model. The next generation Volkswagen Vento will also share the underpinnings.
Importantly, Skoda has been operating in India since November 2001 as a subsidiary of Skoda Auto a. s. Czech Republic which is one of the oldest automobile companies in the world with its headquarter in Mlada Boleslav. It has 4 models on sale in India i.e. Skoda Superb, Skoda Octavia, Skoda Rapid and Skoda Kodiaq. It has a network of 65 sales and 63 service outlets across the country.
