Touring the Skôttish Highlands in the Skoda Enyaq
Is this the first EV where you don’t have to compromise?
Currently, buying an EV means you have to compromise.
It might be on range, size, or price, but there will be something, somewhere which won’t be perfect. However, the Skoda Enyaq might be the first electric car where there isn’t a real compromise.
This is a car you could easily have as your main car, that fits the whole family (and all their stuff), that won’t add too much time to your journey, and that doesn’t cost the earth. You might think the Scottish Highlands are an ambitious location to drive several hundred miles in an electric car. We thought so too, until we did it.
What is the Skoda Enyaq?
The Skoda Enyaq is the Czech company’s first ‘purpose-built’ electric car. It’s an SUV, naturally, but don’t let that put you off. Size wise, it’s a biggun, almost Kodiaq sized, but with no seven seat option. It’s got a sizeable blanked-off grille on the front end, but if you’re feeling adventurous, you could opt for ‘Crystal Face’. That might sound like a side effect on a Louis Theroux drug documentary, but is in fact 130 LED lights illuminating the grille. Let’s just say we were pleased our test car did not have... Crystal Face.
It does look a bit ‘meh’ in white, but you can get some lovely colours that make it pop a bit more, including a nice light minty greeny bluey colour (more professionally called Arctic Silver Metallic), a brighter Race Blue Metallic, and a rather sumptuous Velvet Red Metallic – along with the usual grey, black etc.
Whaddaya reckon to this interior?
Inside, things are looking seriously swish. We’d go as far to say, things are looking Volvo Scandi chic. You can opt for a range of different interior finishes, which all have a different feel to them. The ‘entry level’ Loft interior doesn’t feel remotely cheap, with a grey-fabric covered dashboard and various aluminium trims. But you'll still probably want to go higher, because why not? The Suite design gets you black leather with lots of piano black, Lounge comes with leather and microfibre, and Ecosuite has a divisive brown leather finish which we started off unsure about, but after 20 minutes driving it decided we really liked it. There’s also the very cool Lodge design, which is full of eco-friendly options: the seats are made with a mix of wool and recycled plastic bottles. Whichever option you go for, the interior feels airy and comfortable.
Across all models, there’s a 13-inch infotainment system sat on the dashboard. It works really well and is easy to use without being distracting, but it was a bit frustrating that you needed to go through the system to change the climate control, which then blanked off the satnav screen for a few seconds. Fine when you’re on a road for the next 27 miles, not so fine if you’re trying to navigate around town. It also comes with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There are a few extras available, including a head up display which adds the navigation directions to your field of view.
You won’t be stuck for storage space in the Skoda Enyaq. There’s a 585-litre boot with the seats up, which goes to a huge 1,710 litres of space with the seats down. On top of that, there’s enough head and legroom for everyone, space for three adults in the back, and lots of big windows. And of course, most importantly, there’s a lot of the quirky extras Skoda is known for, such as the umbrella storage compartment in the driver’s door.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about EVs and towing. The Enyaq can tow up to 1,000kg, which isn’t a huge amount considering some similar sized SUVs can tow up to 2,500kg, but it’s good to know some capability is there.
What’s the Skoda Enyaq like to drive?
All Enyaqs are rear-wheel drive (at the moment), but don’t get your hopes up that you’ll be throwing it around corners like a nippy sports car. Most of all, it’s just really relaxing to drive: comfy, calm, quiet, with a nice high seating position.
Of course there’s some roll round the corners, and on some of the tighter twists and turns on the NC500 you definitely feel the weight as you pitch it in, but that’s the only real time you feel the real heft. It rides smoothly, and fortunately there’s no nauseating wallowing going on.
It’s not the quickest off the line. While you won’t be left behind at traffic lights or panicking if you need to pull out a junction quickly, it takes 8.7 seconds to get to 0-62mph in the Enyaq iV 60, and 8.5 seconds in the iV 80. It doesn’t feel particularly slow though, and once you’re off and on the move, especially on the wider straights and sweeping bends up in Scotland, it felt like it was making great progress.
If you so desire, you can mostly drive the Skoda Enyaq with one pedal too: there are plastic gearshift paddles which change the amount of regenerative braking in three stages.
How about all the electric gubbins?
It’s still the big question with EVs: how far will it go, and how long will it take to charge? There are two battery sizes available in the Enyaq: the smaller one (Enyaq iV 60) can travel up to 256 miles between charges, and the bigger one (Enyaq iV 80) has an official range of up to 333 miles. And of course, to test both, we did swap from the smaller one to the larger one half way through the six hour drive, taking in 300 miles or so of stunning Scottish scenery.
All models have a minimum DC rapid charging capability of 50kW as standard, although you can opt for faster charging (100kW for the iV 60 and 125kW for the iV 80) on the options list. A rapid public charger will charge your Enyaq iV 60 from 10-80% in 35 minutes, or 38 minutes if you’ve got the iV 80. If you’re home charging on a typical 7.2kW wallbox, it’ll take around 9.5 hours to charge the iV 60, or 13 hours to charge the iV 80.
If you’ve been checking out other options, the Enyaq is pretty competitive: you can go up to 282 miles in the Kia e-Niro, up to 300 in the Hyundai Kona electric, up to 206 in the Peugeot e-2008 and up to 323 in the Volkswagen ID.4, which is built on the same platform.
Ok, what’s the bad news – and should I buy one?
Honestly, there isn’t really any bad news. We’ve been wracking our brains and it’s just a very good all rounder. Ok so it’s not an exciting car in any way, shape or form. It won’t thrill you when you get behind the wheel and deliver breathtaking performance, but would you really want that from a car like this?
If we’re really trying, it’s a bit underwhelming to look at, and maybe won’t cause your neighbours to turn their heads as you pull into your driveway. But again, will you care as you’re swanning down the road in silence, comfort and enjoying the really plush cabin? Unlikely. If you’re looking for a genuinely pleasant electric SUV with none of those annoying compromises, you currently can’t do much better than the Skoda Enyaq.
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Comments (15)
All EV's are a compromise!
You're compromising the god given right to the use of internal combustion!
Your ideas are intruiging me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
News letter??
I don't have one fella, I'm just a regular every day commenter 🤷♂️
I adore the looks of the Enyaq, but Skoda, an SUV?? C'mon it looks like more like an MPV
I like I but prefer it's competitors
I can’t get an ICE car because they’re too compromised. Slow, noisy, fumey, and takes all my allowance money to run and maintain.
I’d like to know what it’s range is towing a 1 tonne caravan and fully loaded with people and stuff…. Not that I’m a caravan owner but you’ve got to demonstrate the worst case as well as the best case.
Looks okay for an electric SUV but probably the same running gear as the Q4 E-tron so forced, I’d go for the Audi.
EVs are shit.