Skoda Fabia G-TEC coming our way

© SkodaExpect the CNG pressure tanks to be located underneath the boot floor, possibly limiting its capacity

It's a gas!

The Fabia has been recently facelifted outside and in. The major change under the skin is the elimination of Diesel engines from the line-up (which weren't very popular with buyers anyway, with less than 10% of them opting for oil-burners) in favour of an array of petrol-powered units. Some of them have port fuel injection, others direct one, but what they have in common is that they're all three-pots. And given that the Ibiza TGI features a modified variant of the growingly popular 1,0 TSI engine, the CNG-motivated Fabia G-TEC must be right around the corner, right? Well, not exactly.

Patient you must be

The thing is, the latest iterations of the Ibiza and the Volkswagen Polo are based on Volkswagen Group's latest modular architecture for supermini-class cars, while the Fabia is still built on the previous-generation underpinnings (it was undeiled in 2014). And while a methane-powered B-segment Skoda is coming one way or another, it won't hit the showrooms until the next generation of the car is ready.

First things first

Not all hope is lost for a subcompact Skoda running on compressed natural gas, though. Given that Seat is about to roll out a TGI variant of the small Arona crossover and that the Czech brand unveiled a funky-looking concept for an Arona sibling (the Vision X, a hybrid with a CNG-powered combustion engine) in Geneva, a model with a name starting with a K and ending with a Q may be in the pipeline and set for debut before the fourth-gen Fabia is ready. Stay tuned!