Czech automaker Skoda is lining up a new compact car Citigo for Indian market. The company has not been able to crack the big-volume compact car segment in India with the Fabia, and it now plans to launch new products in the lower - end of the market to corner higher numbers and market share. Honda has already launched Honda Brio, and Hyundai came up with Hyundai Eon, to get their share of this fastest growing car segment.

The Citigo is mainly a small car for Europe, also has a potential in a market like India as informed by Skoda. Skoda is very optimistic on the Indian market and expect growth rates between 10% and 20% in the coming years.

The Citigo is one of the newest and the smallest cars in Skoda’s stable and will be launched in the Czech market in late 2011 and in Europe in the beginning of summer 2012. In line with the company’s positioning of a value-for-money brand within the Volkswagen (VW) stable, the Citigo will be a cheaper alter native to parent VW’s Up!.

SKoda is looking to give a substantial push to its sales in India. The Rapid is the first model in this direction and it is the first car from the Skoda brand which has been designed, keeping in mind the special needs of Indan customers. It will be manufactured in India.

The Rapid will be launched in India in December and will compete with models like Nissan’s Sunny, Toyota’s Etios, Maruti’s Dzire, Ford,s Fiesta Classic and Tata’s Indigo Manza. It will be priced lower than Volkswagen Vento, whose price starts at Rs 7 lakh. The model will be manufactured at Volkswagen’s Chakan factory.