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Marton Pettendy18 Jul 2014
NEWS

Skoda sketches new Fabia

First official sketch of third-generation Skoda Fabia released ahead of 2015 release

It's been spied numerous times almost fully undisguised and now Skoda has released the first official sketch of its third-generation Fabia.

Skoda's first all-new light-car in 15 years will make its global public premiere at the Paris motor show on October 2, before being launched in Europe later that month and released in Australia in the second half of next year.

Alongside the rendering, Volkswagen's Czech brand has also confirmed its redesigned five-door hatchback, which will again also be available in wagon form, will be a substantial 90mm wider and 30mm lower. Overall length should remain around four metres.

Although it won't be as sleek as the car in the sketch, the broader and squatter body will be less ungainly than both previous Fabias without losing their distinctively large glasshouse proportions.

Also confirmed by the image, which shows the MkIII Fabia will borrow heavily from the Vision-C concept and echo the designs the of the larger Rapid Spaceback and Octavia liftback, are details like a sloping clamshell bonnet with prominent central ridge, shorter overhangs and a 'faster' windscreen and A-pillars.

Skoda has announced no other information, other than claiming the next Fabia will offer "a completely new, versatile interior with individual options for customisation".

However, the rendering confirms a number of other exterior design elements previously disguised by black masking tape on the pre-production models snapped in testing.

They include a sharp new full-length shoulder crease, a rising lower bodyside graphic, more angular lower headlight edge, a matching new grille with sharper lower corners and a full-width lower bumper inlet with outboard foglights.

The 2015 Fabia will be the first model to ride on a new shortened version of the Volkswagen Golf's MQB platform, dubbed MQB-A, which will also underpin the next VW Polo, SEAT Ibiza and Audi A1.

Instead of a Polo GTI-rivalling RS performance version this time round, however, Skoda has said it will concentrate on top-spec Monte Carlo editions as seen in the current range.

The MkIII Fabia should bring the same new electronic architecture as Volkswagen's facelifted Polo (due here in August), including a larger colour touch-screen infotainment system, plus the VW's new electric power steering system and higher-quality interior materials.

It's uncertain to what extent it will adopt the upgraded Polo's other new technologies, such as LED headlights, radar cruise control, two-stage suspension damping, low-speed emergency braking, post-collision automatic braking and drowsy driver alert.

Given they're not available in the Rapid, it also remains to been whether the next Fabia scores fuel-saving functions like idle-stop and regenerative braking, or features like a reversing camera and sat-nav.

Expect the next Fabia's engine options to also closely resemble those of the upcoming Polo, which will be fitted in Europe with a 1.4-litre three-cylinder turbo-diesel and 66kW/160Nm and 81kW/175Nm versions of the existing 1.2-litre 77TSI turbo four.

It's unclear whether it will come to Australia, but the new diesel engine should join the existing Fabia's petrol engines in being available with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

The Volkswagen group's smaller 1.0-litre petrol-triple from the VW up! is also expected to be fitted to a new base Fabia variant weighing less than 1000kg.

Entry pricing for the existing Fabia was reduced from $18,990 to $15,990 in late March, to position it below the new Rapid Spaceback (from $18,990) and Octavia (from $21,690).

In order to compete with the MkIII Mazda2 (due here in October), the replacement for Australia's top-selling light-car, the Hyundai i20 (also due to debut at Paris and arrive here in 2015) and the overhauled Polo, the new model should continue that positioning.

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