Skoda is bringing a completely new generation of the Fabia to the market this year. The compact Czech has now been publicly caught in production form for the first time.
Skoda CEO Thomas Schäfer announced the arrival of a new Fabia in the fall of last year. It will be on the market this year and that means that the third generation that is still at the dealerships will go into the books as the Fabia with the shortest career ever. To illustrate that: both the first and second generation lasted at least eight years. Last year, a test mule of the upcoming Skoda Fabia surfaced in which the Czech newcomer was hiding under the carriage of a Volkswagen Polo. For the first time, we now have pictures of the Skoda as it will be released later this year.
The Fabia makes the transition to the MQB A0 platform, which has been used by many of the Volkswagen Group’s compact hatchbacks and crossovers for years. The Seat Arona was the group’s first car with this modular basis, but the Seat Ibiza and the Volkswagen Polo also use this platform. The current Fabia already uses MQB technology to a certain extent, but will soon also benefit from the full MQB A0 platform.
Skoda Fabia (2021)
Skoda seems to stick to the sharp-lined C-pillar and the ascending window line at the rear door, although the upward line is less noticeable than with the current model. The Fabia gets a typical Skoda muzzle with a more upright grille and headlamps placed above it to some extent. The rear lights, which are now models with LED technology, now also continue in the tailgate. With this, Skoda breaks with the current Fabia, but lets it keep pace with the Kamiq and the Scala.
Technic
You probably won’t find diesel engines anymore. Skoda may snatch mild-hybrid technology from the Volkswagen Group’s warehouse, although those versions may only become available halfway through the Fabia life cycle to reduce costs as much as possible in the first years. Until then you can choose from a range of well-known 1.0 TSIs, with 95 hp and 110 hp. At the bottom of the list may be an 80 hp MPI, the absolute showroom decoy whose starting price is going to dip well below that of the Polo.
Lovers of relatively affordable horsepower fun hope of course again for an RS version, but it is at the moment too early to say whether it will actually come. For the time being, the RS introduced at the facelift of the second generation Fabia with the 180 hp 1.4 TSI is the last compact Skoda with the magical two-letter combination.
Skoda Scala
Fabia versus Scala and Kamiq
How the Fabia and the Scala will relate to each other in the future? More or less in the same way as now. The Scala, with a vehicle length of 4.36 meters and a wheelbase of 2.65 meters, is considerably larger than the 4.05 meter long (wheelbase, 2.55 meters) new Fabia. The price difference between the Fabia and Scala is now 4 grand. No doubt that difference will soon be slightly smaller, but do not expect the Fabia to be much closer to its larger brother.
Skoda Kamiq
What Skoda will do with the Fabia Combi? Obviously, there would be no successor, as it has the Kamiq on paper as an alternative. Good news: there will still be a new Fabia Combi, although that body style is still waiting. The Combi will undoubtedly – just like the current model – be more spacious than the already mentioned Kamiq. The station wagon currently swallows 530 liters without throwing the back seat flat. The Kamiq gets stuck at 400 liters. With the rear seats flat, they both come to 1,395 liters.