Skoda to launch Octavia RS245 tomorrow

Finally, some good news for the true blue enthusiasts amongst the plethora of SUV launches in the Indian market. When you think about performance cars in India you do not have many cars that can give you a decent amount of performance while not costing a complete fortune. This was true till the Octavia Vrs 230 was launched by Skoda in 2017 getting a massive response from the Indian consumers. Although it was a really appreciated product with no immediate competition, some of us were disappointed that it was a slightly tuned down version of the RS245. Now though, Skoda plans to bring the fully RS245 to the Indian shores. Find out more details below.

Overview of the Octavia RS245

Skoda was manipulating over launching the Vrs in the Indian market for many years and finally brought out the Vrs230 along with the car’s facelift launch. Since Skoda was not sure about the sales of such a car in the Indian market it tried to bring down the costs by giving it a slightly detuned version and not the fully loaded RS245 as is available globally. The Indian market did not disappoint and Skoda got more buyers than it asked, with the 300 initial cars being out, and after which 200 more that were brought in to meet the demand were also gone. Now though Skoda plans to bring the fully loaded RS245 in India in its imported form. This was done due to the relaxed import rules on manufacturers by the government increasing the limit of imported vehicles brought to India.

Changes from the previous model

The Octavia RS245 will get 245 bhp and  370nm of torque from the same 2.0litre TSI engine (previous figures being 230bhp/350nm). Apart from the power increase it also gets wider rear tracks and an updated suspension setup. On the inside, it will get the fully digital instrument cluster as was missed out by the previous-gen RS and will also get other features as are available in the Euro specs car. 

Pricing and launch of the RS245

The only downside of this car is the price increase due to it being CBU. There is no official word by Skoda but the prices are expected to be around the 35 lakh ex-showroom mark which will be a monumental increase from its previous pricing of 25 lakh. With on-road prices going above 40 lakh whether the Octavia RS245 is work the hefty price-tag is obviously a question. Skoda though seems to be pretty confident about the Octavia RS245 considering that it will not bring in any test-drive cars for the country, and are expecting to sell-out the 200 units within a short time from its launch. It will launch tomorrow after displaying it in the Auto Expo.

The all-new Octavia will be launched by the end of this year and therefore the current-gen Octavia will not be getting the BS6 engines and will stop sales of the Octavia till the launch of the new model. Check out details about the upcoming Octavia: