Skoda’s small car debuts new badge and new optimism

Skoda believes that it will sell more than 10,000 examples of its new Citigo small car.

Official target for the car, a version of the Volkswagen up! is 8,000, but product marketing manager Chris Horrell is rather more confident.

“If Hyundai is selling 20,000 i10s, selling 8,000 Citigos should be a walk in the park,” he says.

The Citigo is a major element of Skoda’s plan to increase UK sales to 80,000 a year by 2015 – last year the brand sold 45,000.

By 2015 Skoda expects to be selling 1.5m units globally.

The Citigo launches as a three-door and wears a brand new black-and-chrome winged Skoda logo. This forms part of a brand makeover that will also be seen in showrooms over the next few years.

Horrell says that the white and green Skoda stands familiar to motorshow visitors form the ingredients for the new look, worked around the VW Group‘s ‘box’ design for showrooms. He describes the changes as a “shift in identity” rather than a complete makeover.

The Citigo also sees a new grille although the cut-out beneath the badge will be more pronounced on subsequent models.

First of these will be the new Rapid, arriving at the end of this year and based on the car that was shown at motor shows as the MissionL concept.

A new Octavia will be launched next year followed in 2014 by a new Fabia and Roomster.

The Citigo also marks the arrival of Skoda’s GreenTech eco models, with start-stop which is said to lower fuel consumption by nine per cent.

GreenTech models also get brake energy recuperation and low rolling resistance tyres which combine to give the 59bhp version of the 1.0-litre Citigo CO2 emissions of 96g/km and the 74bhp version 98g/km. For non-GreenTech models those figures are 103 and 105g/km.

Prices start from £7,630 for the S trim 59bhp three-door rising to £10,065 for the 74bhp Elegance with automatic transmission.

Words by: Headline Auto