Skoda Fabia (2015) unveiled: first pictures of Czech supermini

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

19 August 2014 08:00

Czech HQ has issued this pair of pictures of the new 2015 Skoda Fabia. They reveal a conservatively styled supermini in the vein of a shrunken Octavia with a dash more sophistication than today’s workaday hatch.

The new, third-generation Fabia sticks with the crisp, defined surfacing that has come to represent Skoda’s ascetic formality. It’s a no-nonsense design for a straightforward, family-friendly, good-value car brand, it seems at first glance.

Not a huge amount of technical information has been announced ahead of the Skoda Fabia’s Paris 2014 motor show debut.

But Skoda has issued an interview with head designer Jozef Kaban, who claims the Fabia is ‘a sportier vehicle… The result is a young, fresh and modern compact car that sets new standards in its segment.’

Kaban says the new 2015 Fabia draws heavily on the VisionC concept car, which was designed to roll out a new look for the new generation of Skodas.

‘Skoda is able to combine great functionality with an expressive, emotional and more sharply defined design. This new design direction is the next step in the development of our brand and the new Skoda Fabia is the first model to communicate this design language. Drawing on elements of the Skoda VisionC design study, the Fabia is more expressive, more dynamic and sportier.’

Our thoughts exactly. But Kaban is adamant that Skoda needs to break out of its budget family space roots and inject more emotion to what has become a functional brand.

‘Skoda has made a name for itself by producing cars with great functionality and above-average interior space,’ said the designer. ‘We sense that now is the right time to create a stronger connection between the functionality of our cars and an expressive and emotional design.’

Yet despite these sportier overtones, Skoda promises to uphold its core values. The boot is the biggest in the supermini class at around 330 litres, claims Skoda, and the new Fabia’s cabin is wider and longer than before. The whole car is 90mm wider

The cabin has MirrorLink technology, so the onboard computer screen can mimic your smartphone’s and the engines are promised to be up to 17% more efficient. The cleanest will top 90mpg and promise CO2 emissions of just 80g/km.

And Skoda is again offering personalisation aplenty: there are 15 paint colours to choose from and you can choose contrasting hues for the roof and door mirrors.

The new Skoda Fabia is due in showrooms in early 2015, priced from around £10,000. Read more about the Skoda Fabia in the run-up to the Paris motor show on 2 October 2014.

By Tim Pollard