Amongst these is Skoda’s three-door hatchback Citigo, which shares its platform with the Volkswagen Up! model. Both are produced at the company’s manufacturing plant in south-western Slovakia alongside various other models.

Vitezslav Pelc, Skoda Auto spokesman, said: ‘Czech dealers have begun accepting orders for Skoda Citigo today and first deliveries will follow during November exclusively on the local market. Citigo will be offered on other selected markets in Europe from 2012.’

Volkswagen, the Europe's largest car maker in volume terms, enters the small car segment, based on its A00 platform shared among various types of its city cars, to take on small rivals already popular among European buyers.

Skoda Citigo is the seventh product line of the Czech car maker. Skoda Auto plans to add two new models every year as it seeks to double global sales to at least 1.5m vehicles by 2018.