Skoda Rapid SpaceBack arrives ahead of a Frankfurt debut

The Skoda Rapid SpaceBack has been revealed as a conventional hatchback rather than an estate ahead of a debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

[nggallery id=1575 template=customlinks]

You’d expect something called SpaceBack to be a more commodious version of a standard car. But in the case of the new Skoda Rapid Spaceback, it’s not.

In fact, the SpaceBack is a more conventional hatchback version of the Rapid Saloon Skoda revealed last year which wasn’t actually a saloon at all but a ‘liftback’.

So instead of being an estate car, the Spaceback is actually the same as the Rapid saloon back to the B-Pillars – with the same wheelbase – and then turns in to a conventional 5-door hatch.

That actually means less room for load-lugging than the Rapid, with the seats up space dropping from 550 litres to 415 litres and the seats down space from 1490 litres to 1380 litres.

Apart from a design that looks like the Rapid with the boot removed, the headline feature is probably the optional full-length glass roof and the ‘prolong’ back window which stretches down the hatch.

Engines for the UK will mimic those of the Rapid saloon – which means the 1.2 litre TSI with various power outputs, 1.4 litre TSI with 120bhp plus a pair of diesels.

Skoda hasn’t come up with a price for the Rapid SpaceBack, and we don’t know yet whether they’ll consider a premium or a discount from the Rapid saloon the way to go.

But with the SpaceBack due on sale in the UK by the end of 2013, we’ll know soon enough.