2015 Skoda Fabia :: fresh details of new city car

The Czech brand continued the drip-feed unveiling of its third-generation city car overnight, this time releasing two fresh angles of the production model that’s set to debut at October’s Paris motor show.

The new images highlight the compact Skoda’s new grille and provide a bird’s-eye view of its headlight and bonnet. They come just two days after Skoda released the first official image of the production car, a close-up of its new headlight design.

Spy shots captured last month gave us a good idea of what to expect from the Fabia’s new grille, though today’s image reveals it free of camouflage for the first time. The angular fixture has 19 black vertical slats bordered by a satin chrome frame, and features the more angular lines that are a feature of the brand’s current design language.

The top-down shot of the right headlamp highlights the attention to detail of the car’s stylists, with the grille pattern continuing into the light cluster.

The trio of teasers points to a more up-market look for the new Fabia, which will compete with newly updated city cars such as the Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Toyota Yaris, and its sister car, the Volkswagen Polo, as well as other pint-sized favourites, including the Ford Fiesta, Holden Barina, Renault Clio and the Suzuki Swift.

The third-gen Skoda Fabia retains its predecessor’s sub-four-metre length but is 90mm wider and 30mm lower than before. Reports claim the added width combined with improved interior packaging will boost cargo capacity to around 330 litres, which is almost as large as the boots of some hatchbacks in the next class up.

Globally, the Fabia will be available with the choice of naturally aspirated 1.0-litre three-cylinder and 1.2-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol and 1.4-litre three-cylinder turbo diesel engines. Skoda Australia is expected to offer only the larger petrol engine in the new Fabia when it arrives around the middle of 2015, mirroring Volkswagen’s updated Polo range, which launches next week.

Skoda will once again offer a wagon body style of the Fabia but will not replace the slow-selling RS hot-hatch variant, instead focusing on its style-centric red and black Monte Carlo line.