Will upcoming Skoda Octavia pose threat for Hyundai Elantra

In the recent past, the executive sedan segment has witnessed the launch of various vehicles manufactured by different car companies. Car makers like Skoda, Volkswagen, Toyota and Hyundai do have a recognisable market share and are among the major car companies that are vying to make a mark in this segment. Talking about Skoda in particular, it has recently unveiled its Octavia sedan that will soon hit the Indian car market in coming festive season. On the other hand, Hyundai has recently launched a new generation model of Elantra bearing the fluidic design language that is seen on a number of new vehicles of the company. Once Octavia is launched, both the cars of their respective companies would be giving each other a run for their money. Now on closely analysing the overall aspect of upcoming Skoda Octavia and Hyundai Elantra, it must be said that the competition between two will be quite tough.

In terms of engine and performance, Hyundai Elantra has been offered in both petrol and diesel engine variants. The diesel version of Elantra comes equipped with a 1.6-litre CRDi engine having Variable Geometry Turbochargers. This engine produces 126 bhp of power at 4000 rpm and 259 Nm of peak torque while displacing 1582 cc. In the diesel variant of Elantra, the availability of 6-speed manual and automatic transmission has been also offered. For petrol variant, the car gets a 1.9-litre VTVT motor having 149 bhp of power and 177 Nm of torque. Likewise, the diesel version, this variant too comes in manual and automatic transmission options.

On coming to Octavia, Skoda has not revealed any details regarding the engine specifications of the car but according to company insiders, the car might be offered under four different engine configurations. As told, Skoda Octavia shall be powered by 1.4-litre TSI, 1.8-litre TSI and 2.0-litre petrol engine. The respective engines will be capable of producing 138 bhp, 177 bhp and 220 bhp of power outputs. On the other hand, Skoda Octavia will also feature in a diesel engine having a peak output of 148 bhp while having an ability to reach maximum torque of 330 Nm.

Assessing the overall dimensions of both the cars, Elantra is 4530 mm in length, 1775 mm in width and 1470 mm in height, whereas upcoming Skoda Octavia will have exterior specifications of 4659 mm in length, 1814 mm in width and 1476 mm in height. As evident from the above statistics, Skoda Octavia clearly is bigger and better than the Hyundai Elantra.

On comparing the features of both cars, what really stands out in Elantra is its rear air conditioning vents and front seat ventilation system, in which the air circulated throughout the seat removes moisture to reduce fatigue for front passengers. Apart from it, both the vehicles have almost same features but the Hyundai's car definitely stands out. While in case of design appeal, Elantra scores over upcoming Skoda Octavia as the car has got distinctive edgy running creases on the body, which are incarnated from fluidic designing philosophy of the company. While for Skoda, it is made on the lines of parent company's MQB (Modular Transversal Toolkit) platform having uniform proportionality across the whole car.

As far as the pricing of both cars is concerned, Elantra is offered at a introductory price of Rs. 12.71 lakh while for the top-end variant, it rises till Rs. 16.05 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai). Now coming to the price of Skoda Octavia, industry experts are speculating that Octavia be placed somewhere between Rs. 13 lakh and Rs. 18 lakh.