Skoda up!grades with five-door Citigo

Mon, 06 Feb 2012

On this side of the Atlantic, one Volkswagen division's new product may not have a significant impact on those of another. That's because the German auto giant's brands are kept quite separate in North America. Less so, however, back in Europe, where a new VW is likely to reappear in due time as a Seat or Skoda.

Case in point: the new Up! city car, which is also sold overseas as the Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo. And, true to form, with the Volkswagen brand having enlarged its city car to a five-door, its Czech cousin has followed suit.

And so, starting in May (after its debut at the Geneva Motor Show), European buyers will be able to get their hands on a five-door Citigo, offering the same 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine (in either 60- or 75-horsepower guise) as the Up, Mii and three-door Citigo. Details in the press release after the jump.

WORLD DEBUT FOR FIVE-DOOR ŠKODA CITIGO

- Exhibition debut at 2012 Geneva Motor Show
- Model line extended into new market segments
- ŠKODA model offensive is defining element in manufacturer's Growth Strategy

Mladá Boleslav, January 30th, 2012 – ŠKODA will present the new Citigo subcompact to the public as a five-door version for the first time at the Geneva Auto Salon in early 2012. Media representatives will be offered a preview of the new ŠKODA including test drives in February 2012. The five-door version will be successively launched in European markets together with the three-door version from mid-May 2012.

The Citigo represents ŠKODA's entry into the fast growing subcompact segment. The new model was successfully introduced in ŠKODA's home market, the Czech Republic, in late 2011. From this year, the Citigo is to conquer new customer groups for ŠKODA, thus contributing to the brand's growth strategy. ŠKODA aims to increase its worldwide deliveries to a minimum of 1.5 million units a year by 2018. In 2011, the company achieved yet another sales record in its 117-year corporate history, selling 879,200 units.

The Citigo ranks among the most compact and, at the same time, among the roomiest of its segment. In keeping with the brand's 'Simply Clever' claim, the car impresses with a number of ingenious features such as a photo and document holder, a bag hook on the glove compartment and a range of net holders.

The Citigo's designers placed great emphasis on safety, winning the car the top score of five stars in the Euro NCAP crash test. And another premiere: the new city car is also the first ŠKODA model ever to sport the brand's new logo.

Powering the Citigo is a three-cylinder petrol engine with one litre of displacement in two versions with 44 kW/60 hp or 55 kW/75 hp. In its most efficient Green tec variant, the new Citigo achieves a mileage of 4.1 l/100 km, CO2 emissions in the new ŠKODA model amount to just 96 g CO2/km.

The smallest member of the ŠKODA family has recently become Best City Car in the largest Czech poll, the Car of the Year 2012.

By Noah Joseph