Skoda plans Golf GTI rival by 2021

The Czech brand hopes its new car, set to replace the Rapid, will help it scale new heights against rivals like the Ford Focus and Golf, with a larger footprint based on Polo underpinnings that it says will have leading interior space in the segment.

Speaking with Drive at the unveiling of the Vision RS concept at the Paris motor show this month, Skoda Europe chief product planner Thomas Besson-Magdelain said that the Rapid Spaceback replacement would be around 80 per cent of what the concept looks like.

“Yeah, between 80 per cent [the Vision RS appearance is] the new replacement Rapid Spaceback but a totally new car, it will get a new name,” he said.

"With stylised headlights and taillights [it] will be 80 percent. It will be the same [tailgate].

“It will be longer than a Golf, so bigger, it will be based on the MQB A0 platform with more soft-touch materials on the interior, more technology with blind spot detection, connected navigation, lane assistant, parking assistant.”

What won’t carry-over will be the 1.5-litre petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain seen in the Vision RS that will feature in the new Superb, however, Besson-Magdelain teased enthusiasts by saying an RS version was in consideration for the Scala and that it would get the Polo GTI’s 2.0-litre petrol turbo that currently produces 147kw and 320Nm.

“It will not be used [the hybrid drivetrain] in the future Spaceback, but the hybrid system will be used on the Superb facelift with the launch date at the beginning of 2020.

“It is not confirmed [an RS version of this Spaceback car], he said”

“If it will be confirmed it will be launched at the beginning of 2021. The engine like a Polo GTI.”

Further details seem that, like the Polo GTI, we won’t get an option for a manual transmission.

“Only DSG, front-wheel drive,” Besson-Magdelain told Drive.

While we will need to possibly wait until 2021 to see a Scala RS model, the brand says that the base model is due to launch mid-2019.

“Spaceback will be approximately middle of next year.”