Skoda Enyaq iV review: The best all-electric so far and a great drive too
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Enyaq Iv Verdict Colley's Skoda |
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rating Class="contextmenu |
★★★★☆ |
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Class="contextmenu price |
Including Grant €50,156 €5,000 From €57,712 Tested As Seai |
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Motor |
77 Range With Or Bhp 204 Of An Equivalent 420km Kw, |
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Class="contextmenu Spec the |
Terribly Impressive |
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Emphasis">verdict The road to electrification has been a bumpy one thus far with manufacturers rushing to market to meet growing demand, often with ill-conceived and ill-considered machines which were frequently completely unsuited for purpose and often unfit for mass-market sales. It has only been in the relatively recent past that we are getting a generation of electrics that have a workable range and don’t take a millennium to recharge. This week we get to test what is perhaps the best of those that have thus far passed through our hands. And, given the status of the manufacturer concerned within the giant automotive group which owns it, it may come as something of a surprise to many people to find out who it is that makes this excellent machine. The car in question is the Skoda Enyaq iV and, given that the Czech outfit has heretofore been a minor player (albeit a very profitable one) within the sphere of the great Volkswagen Group, it is something of a shock to find that its first all-electric car pretty much completely outshines both the ID.3 and ID.4, VW’s own and much-vaunted electric contenders. If then, there is a certain sense of schadenfreude within the company headquarters in Mlada Boleslav and something more along the lines of dismay in Wolfsburg, that may be because it would appear the Czechs have caught more of the electric zeitgeist (if you’ll pardon the continued use of German phraseology) than the Germans themselves. Both the ID models would appear to have emerged from some sort of minor league post-industrial minimalist design studio rather than one of the biggest automotive giants on the planet, while the Skoda has tapped into those design criteria that people want right now. That being the case, there is a wonderful word to describe what the reaction has been to the Enyaq iV at Wolfsburg. That word is ‘lalochezia’ and it means ‘the use of swearing to alleviate stress and frustration.’ I suspect that there’s been a lot of lalochezia going on in Wolfsburg. Having collected the car at Galvin’s in Bandon (thanks again, Justin, for your assistance) and taken it further into the West Cork nether-lands I was at once taken not only by the poise and ability of the car as a family workhorse, but also by its range accuracy. As we know by now, many manufacturers will claim a range of ‘X’ to gloss their product up, but when subjected to real world driving, it actually only delivers ‘Y’ – which invariably is well short of ‘X.’ If the Enyaq told you it had ‘X’ amount of juice, generally it was ‘X’ which was delivered. Now I know differing driving styles will deliver differing results – the same way as with conventional petrols or diesels – but the Enyaq largely gave you what it said it was going to give you. Sure there is an element here – like there is with most electrics – of distinct optimism on behalf of the manufacturer, but it is not nearly as wildly out of whack as other car makers. Skoda claim a range of some 535 km for the car, but in the real world it will deliver about 420 km. That seems like a big difference, but once you know what the true range is, you can easily work around it. And, in any event, 420 km is towards the top end of the ability of any electric right now. On top of that, while the ID models from VW will do similar mileage because they are based on the exact same running gear, the Skoda does so while offering much less minimalist interior and exterior designs and a more family-oriented package. It’s cheaper too. During the course of my week with the car, it saw a lot of work. Firstly it had to go from Bandon to Crookhaven; then it was taken from Crook to beautiful Carrigadrohid in the stunning Lee Valley and back; and, finally, it zipped us from Crook to Cork. Never during the course of this busy week did it offer us one moment of range anxiety and indeed the three guys who accompanied me from Cork to Carrigadrohid (to see the giants of Goleen’s Junior B Football beat Doneraile in the quarter-final of the county championship, if you must know), were completely taken aback at what was on offer here. Not only were they (and me, it must be said) smitten by the car’s comfort and composure on some very tricky B-roads, we were also bowled over by its relative frugality, covering over 200 km – without sparing the horses, it must be said – and still leaving another 200 still in the tank. All were impressed too with the tech on board and my passengers were totally blown away by the autonomous cruise control, the ability to make the Enyaq pretty much a one pedal driver if you wished and the amount of space inside, especially for those in the back seats. They couldn’t get over the size of the boot either. They also loved the interior décor which, on the test model, featured included leather (or faux leather, I’m not 100% sure, but it felt and looked good) upholstery, the 13” touchscreen infotainment system (including navigation) and the virtual cockpit which really does have a ‘wow’ factor. A follow-up no-holds-barred ride to Cork some days later was equally notable for its relative frugality with well over half capacity left in the batteries at the end of it and the delight of the unerring accuracy of the range indicator. One slight frustration was that without a wall-charger (0-100% in about three-and-a-half hours) and only with the power coming from a three-pin socket, it took seven hours to charge. The car we tried was the Enyaq iV 80, which is the more powerful of the two options available and it provides battery power of some 77 kW, or an equivalent of 204 bhp. This car was not that much quicker than the lesser iV 60 – with a 0-100 km/h time of 8.9 seconds and a top speed of 160 km/h – but that’s down to the weight differential. This is not a car that will pull your socks off, performance-wise, but it is very decent when asked to stretch its’ legs and once again my football passengers were impressed with the turn of foot on offer. If the Quartz Grey of the tester did not truly highlight the best of the car’s exterior design features (there are much nicer and more flattering colours on offer), the inherent good looks here stood it in good stead anyway. But that’s a minor quibble in the face of what is a serious triumph here for Skoda. The company has built a machine which has a truly workable range, is fantastically comfortable for driver and passengers alike, has a deep well of technology on offer and is great to drive too. Worth mentioning is the London Cab-like turning circle – largely thanks to the rear drive layout – and also worth considering is that there’ll be a hot VRs version coming down the tracks too, which is something to keenly anticipate. Bottom line here is that Skoda has, in my humble opinion, completely out-manoeuvred its German masters by producing a car which is better looking inside and out and performs as well as those to which it was supposed to be subservient. Easily the best electric we’ve yet driven. | |