Five questions on Skoda's new Minnow, how much stronger is it after the changeover?

Recently, a few real-life pictures on the Internet have brought the Skoda Elite back to the limelight after a long time. As Skoda's main selling model, its monthly sales in China in 2014 could reach 16,800 units. But with the tightening of the macro car market and price cuts from competing models, today's Minnow is hovering at half its peak monthly sales.

In fact, as early as November last year, Skoda unveiled the new Minnow at its headquarters in the Czech Republic. The fact that a few pictures of the actual car outside attracted so much attention this time around must still be due to the fact that people are still expecting a lot from the Minnow.

In the face of tough market challenges, a facelift is often a good opportunity for a product to revitalize sales. So let's find out what the new Skoda Mindray has to offer.

Question 1: What are the changes and improvements in the new model?

First of all, the exterior design of the new Minnow is more dynamic than its predecessor. The entire car uses a lot of harsh lines to create a tough and sporty style. The front grille is much larger than its predecessor, and the headlights are more aggressive. The two waistlines on the side of the car are combined with the rear of the car to form a compressed tail shape, which looks very dynamic. The interior of the taillights also has a three-dimensional shape design, and the visual effect is very delicate.

Size-wise, the new generation of Minnow's trim and touring versions have the same length, width and wheelbase of 4689mm, 1829mm and 2686mm respectively. among them, the length of the new trim version has increased by 19mm and width by 15mm compared to the current model, while the touring version of the new model has increased by 22mm in length and 15mm in width compared to the current model.

The new model's touring version has increased by 22mm in length and 15mm in width compared to the current model.

Besides the exterior, the interior of the new Minotti also gets a huge upgrade. The new car changes from the previous generation's extremely traditional and plain interior design style, using more curved elements. With the two-spoke steering wheel, floating center control screen and geometric air vents, the overall visual effect is more layered and technological.

It is worth noting that the new car's interior is technologized while still retaining some of the commonly used physical buttons, and the lower part of the center control is equipped with a Type-C port and a wireless charging seat, which is very practical. In addition, the new car interior is also equipped with ambient lighting configuration, which greatly enhances the sense of atmosphere inside the car.

Question 2: How is the powertrain of the new Minnow?

As a global model, the new Minotti is planned to be launched in gasoline (three engines), diesel (one engine), plug-in hybrid (one engine + electric motor) and natural gas version (one engine). Of these, the gasoline version and the plug-in hybrid are expected to be sold in China.

The gasoline version will be available with a choice of three engines: 1.0 TSI three-cylinder, 1.5 TSI four-cylinder, and 2.0 TSI four-cylinder, which are mated to either a six-speed manual transmission or a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The 7-speed dual-clutch transmission model is paired with a 48V light hybrid system, and the 2.0TIS powertrain model is also available with four-wheel drive.

Compared with the current model's 1.5L (113 hp), 1.2T (116 hp) and 1.4T (150 hp) engines, the new model's 1.0TSI three-cylinder (110 hp) and 1.5TSI four-cylinder (150 hp) engines don't have a significant increase in power. But the new engines will use more advanced technology and tuning, and should perform better in terms of adapting to emissions regulations and power output curves.

However, according to SAIC-Volkswagen's usual style, in the context of the current product lineup in China, all of which are equipped with the 1.4T engine as the mainstay, the new Mingrui introduced into the domestic sales market will most likely retain the current model's powertrain, and use the 1.2T model as the main sales version for the volume. Meanwhile, the 2.0TSI model's hope of entering China is also very slim.

In the context of the growing new energy market in China, the 48V light-hybrid system should not be absent, and the plug-in hybrid version of the all-new Minrio will be expected to be sold in China. It is reported that the plug-in hybrid version of the new-generation Minrue will be equipped with a 1.4TSI engine and a single electric motor, with a combined maximum power of 204 hp and 245 hp.

Question 3: When will the new Minnow go on sale?

Currently, Skoda has not given any official information about the launch time of the new Minnow in China, but according to foreign media sources, the new Minnow model has been officially put into production at Skoda's Mladá Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic at the end of last year, with a production capacity of up to 1,150 units per day. At the same time, the plant will prioritize the production of the new Minnow's wagon version due to the unique market demand in its European home.

Turning our attention back to the country, with reference to the previous Skoda's models from the overseas release to the domestic market time difference of 7-10 months, the new Minnow in November 2019 should be the probability of late 2020 officially listed. But by the current new crown pneumonia epidemic, the new Minrue's domestic process or will be delayed to a certain extent, the model's final listing time may also be delayed to the first half of 2021.

Question 4: How much will the new Minnow cost?

The new Minrue is positioned as a compact sedan for joint venture brands, and we can roughly estimate the price range of the new Minrue by referring to the prices of Skoda's compact SUV Khloe, mid-sized sedan Speed, and mid-sized SUV Kodiak.

Currently, the official guide price of Kerok is 139,900-177,400 yuan, the official guide price of Speed is 169,900-239,900 yuan, and the official guide price of Kodiak is 186,900-268,400 yuan. From this, we can use the ratio of the selling price of sedans and SUVs of the same brand and class to estimate the price range of the new Minrue at 127,200-158,600 yuan, which is also very close to the current Minrue's price range of 109,900-159,900 yuan.

Meanwhile, Headline believes that the pricing of 127,200-158,600 yuan is on the high side for the new Minrue in the current market environment. Under the fierce competition in the same class, it might be a more reasonable decision for the new Minrue to lower its price to below 100,000 yuan for the entry-level model, and lock the price of the top model to below 150,000 yuan.

Question 5: How competitive is the new Elite?

Looking at the current Chinese auto market, the Minrue's main competitors are the Longyi, Bora and Corolla. A simple comparison will give us a rough idea of the new Minnow's strengths and weaknesses compared to these three cars.

Power, all four models have multiple powertrain versions, and we chose the highest-powered version for comparison. As you can see, the power parameters of the new Elite are significantly ahead of the Corolla, and in line with those of the Rangie and Bora, which are also part of the Volkswagen Group. However, although the maximum power of the engine of the three cars is the same, but the engine and transmission tuning style there are some differences, the specific performance needs to be test-driven to have a final conclusion.

Configuration, according to the new Minrue overseas version of the configuration of the list comparison, the four cars is the best configuration. The new Minrue 10-inch center control screen size is much larger than the Lange and Bora's 8-inch center control screen, although not as exaggerated as the Corolla's 12.1-inch center control screen, but with the 10.25-inch full LCD dashboard, the new Minrue's sense of technology is still ahead of the game.

In addition to this, the HUD head-up display, which is often found only in mid-size sedans, is also present in the new Minotti, emphasizing its higher price-performance ratio.

Exterior and interior, although people's aesthetic tendencies are not the same, the new Minnow's appearance is clearly younger than the other three models. The interior is also the latest Skoda design, making the other three models look too plain and conservative by comparison.

After comparing prices, we can see that the FAW-Volkswagen Bora has the lowest entry price among the four cars. Referring to the current market terminal discounts, the three Volkswagen cars have a discount of 10,000 yuan, the range is not similar. This shows that the absolute price advantage of the new Minrue is not obvious. However, taking into account its higher configuration, the new Mingrui's cost performance is still slightly higher than that of the Lanyi and Bora.

Overall, the new Minnow, as a new generation of the Skoda brand's main sales model, has maintained Skoda's usual "generous" level of product strength. But in the joint venture brand A-class cars continue to be impacted by domestic cars, and the sedan segment market overall decline in the background, the new Mingrui want to realize a complete turnaround also faces certain challenges.

The headline believes that the new Minrue, with its own brand power at a disadvantage, may reap the favor of more young consumers by virtue of its more youthful design style and higher cost performance. For more information about the new Mineri, Headline will also keep a close eye on it.

This article comes from the authors of the Motor Home Car Family, and does not represent the viewpoint position of the Motor Home.