Skoda Enyaq Review (2021-present)
Skoda Enyaq cars for sale
5.0
Expert review
Pros
Good value relative to EV rivals
Spacious interior and boot
Comfortable ride
Cons
Standard equipment could be better
Some issues with touchscreens on early models
Sporty vRS model not very exicting
The CarGurus verdict
The Skoda Enyaq iV is a fantastic family SUV that stands comparison with anything else of a similar size, regardless of power source. It’s spacious, comfortable, quiet, feels classy and is a tidy, well-judged drive. More than that, it’s great value for an electric car with this range and level of practicality.
We’d like some of the optional extras to be a bit cheaper so that it’s less expensive for buyers to get the convenience options that most will want, but even with that factored in, the Skoda is a great EV and an even better family car.
What is the Skoda Enyaq?
The Skoda Enyaq iV might not be the Czech brand’s first pure electric car (that honour goes to the CitigoE iV city car), but it's certainly making a big impact. It comes in the shape of a large family SUV that’s a shade smaller Skoda’s popular Kodiaq SUV, and a bit bigger than its Karoq stablemate. Think jacked-up Octavia Estate, and you’re just about there, size-wise.
There's also a sporty version that labours under the name of Enyaq Coupe iV vRS. The vRS comes in an eyewateringly bright paint job called 'Hyper Green' (though other more sensible colours are available) and features a more rakish curved roofline, plus twin electric motors.
How practical is it?
As you’d expect of a big Skoda SUV, the Enyaq is huge on the inside. The 585-litre boot is big enough to take a chunky double buggy and a big dog if you use a boot separator, and there’s storage for the charging cables underneath the boot floor. There’s no cubby under the Skoda Enyaq iV’s bonnet, though, which tends to be more practical for cable storage and is a feature in plenty of other EVs including the Tesla Model 3.
Rear passenger space is hard to fault. Even very tall adults will be able to lounge about in the limo-like space on offer, and the flat floor means that even a middle-seat occupant will have plenty of room for their feet.
Similarly, the driver has a big, airy space to enjoy. It’s easy to find a natural-feeling driving position with a good view of the digital dials, and the minimalist design feels classy. The materials are solidly screwed together and pleasant to touch. The view out over your shoulder is a little limited, but no more so than in most modern SUVs. There’s no seven-seat option in the Enyaq as there is in the Kodiaq or VW Tiguan Allspace, both of which are key rivals if you’re not dead set on a pure electric car. If you definitely want to go pure EV, key rivals include the Kia e-Niro (which is smaller but still a decent family car), the sportier Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Volkswagen ID.4 that shares the Enyaq’s platform and battery.
The Coupe vRS version loses a tiny bit in boot space (570 litres versus 585) but is otherwise identical to the regular car inside.
What's it like to drive?
The Enyaq is offered with two batteries – 62kWh and 82kWh - which are badged the Enyaq iV 60 and Enyaq iV 80. The former gets 177bhp as opposed to the 201bhp delivered in the bigger battery car, though in terms of performance, you’ll notice barely any difference between the two versions. Only 0.2 seconds separates them in the 0-62mph dash, with both hovering around the eight second mark, and whichever you choose, you’ll feel a strong burst of initial acceleration and muscular pickup on the move, even if the Enyaq isn’t exactly the speed-demon that some of its EV rivals are, the Mustang Mach-E included. Four-wheel-drive variants of the Enyaq include the iV 80, and the performance-focussed Enyaq iV vRS, which gets twin electric motors and 295bhp.
On the road, the Skoda Enyaq iV dazzles in other areas, too. Whether you’re on a long journey or battling through city traffic, the car feels unflappable and relaxing. It steers neatly and, even though you’ll be conscious of its hefty size and weight, especially when braking, it’s very easy to place precisely on the road and it feels confident whether you’re winding through narrow roads or cruising on the motorway. There’s an aura of implacability to this big electric Skoda; it’s unbothered by heavy crosswinds, awkward cambers in the roads or otherwise; it just whirrs along, keeping its occupants in an impressively calm, hushed bubble.
Good ride comfort is a big part of that. The smallest wheels available measure 19 inches, and we’ve tried cars on 20- and 21-inchers, and despite these huge rims, the Enyag does a great job of smothering craggy surfaces. Larger, sharper bumps can be felt more, but you’re still very well isolated from the worst effects. We’ve also tried a car fitted with optional adaptive dampers, but we reckon you’re better off without. The adaptive suspension does bring squishy ride comfort in the softer settings, but they also bring fairly loose body control that makes the Skoda wallow as it dips and leans in braking or cornering.
The vRS version adds a high-performance element to the driving experience, with a 0-62mph time of 6.4 seconds, though its sheer size and weight means it never feels that exciting to drive. More humble versions of the Enyaq are more fit-for-purpose in that respect.
Technology and equipment
The official WLTP range is up to 256 or 333 miles, for the 62kWh and 82kWh versions, respectively. Do bear in mind, though, that these are theoretical maximums, and you shouldn’t bank on getting that much in real life. Taking the more powerful car as a for-instance, reckon on getting between 280-300 miles in optimal warm conditions, and closer to 200 when it’s freezing cold and you’re doing lots of motorway driving.
The 13.0-inch touchscreen infotainment screen is standard on every Skoda Enyaq iV, and is the portal to all of the car’s drive modes and settings, as well as to the media and nav. Android Auto, wireless Apple CarPlay, nav, Bluetooth, digital radio, USB-C inputs and smart voice control are all included, and the system itself is easy enough to use and benefits from sharp graphics. However, the screen doesn’t always respond as quickly as we’d like, and more than that, the touch-sensitive volume control bar just beneath the screen is far too easy to hit by accident when you’re using the screen. It’s also annoying that the lack of physical air-con controls means delving into touchscreen menus if you want to change anything aside from the temperature.
Otherwise, the Enyaq really does boast a really plush-feeling interior that’s fairly well equipped. Every Skoda Enyaq iV gets LED headlights, climate control, cruise control, autonomous emergency city braking, reversing sensors (and a camera on the Enyaq 80), and part-leatherette upholstery. There aren’t conventional trim levels to choose from: instead you choose your battery, your interior finish and then select the options packs that you want. The packs are well priced, but if you want heated seats, electric seat adjustment and keyless entry, for instance, you’ll have to add three separate packs.
You also have to pay extra for a three-pin cable that allows you to plug into a normal domestic socket, which is very slow charging but is still a useful way of adding around 7 miles of range per hour while you’re staying somewhere overnight. The standard six-metre Type 2 cable will let you charge up at any home wallbox and most public AC chargers, and a normal 7kW home charger will deliver a full battery in nine or 13 hours depending on battery size.
Stop at one of the common 50kW DC rapid chargers on the UK’s motorway network and you’ll get a 100-mile top-up in about 45 minutes via the Skoda’s CCS socket. However, you have to pay more than £400 to upgrade the Skoda Enyaq iV’s rapid charging to 100kW (for the Enyaq 60) or 125kW (for the Enyaq 80). That’ll get you 100 miles of additional range in more like 20 to 25 minutes, provided you plug into a DC CCS rapid charger offering power of 100kW or more.
Skoda Enyaq running costs
Despite the risk of spending many thousands on options packs, the Skoda Enyaq iV is still one of the best value big EVs going. In fact, the Enyaq 60 costs much the same if not less than an equivalent petrol or diesel Skoda Kodiaq or VW Tiguan. Even the Enyaq 80 is very good value for such a long range family EV.
Monthly costs are a little higher, but are still reasonable by class standards. You can also choose to add all the maintenance costs into the monthly payment to spread those out, and there’s the option of adding seven days use of a non-electric car, useful for the odd occasion that you need to do properly big mileages.
There are plenty of off-peak and EV-specific tariffs that’ll cut EV charging costs in half, so it's worth looking out for those in order to minimise your running costs with the Enyaq. There’s also no VED road tax to pay on pure electric cars, and company car tax is hilariously cheap until at least April 2024. Even a high-spec Enyaq 80 will cost well under £400 per year in Benefit in Kind tax for a 40% tax payer, saving many thousands over comparable petrol, diesel or plug-in hybrid alternatives.
Insurance groups vary from 23 to 36, which is on a par with equivalent SUVs like the Skoda Kodiaq if a little higher than for the Kia e-Niro. The Skoda Enyaq iV will tell you when it’s due a service, as it can vary depending on how you drive the car. You’ll likely need a couple of services in the first three years, with costs under £400 if you go for the fixed price offer.
Skoda Enyaq reliability
The Skoda Enyaq iV sits on an all-new platform, called the MEB platform. MEB also underpins the VW ID.4 and VW ID.3 and will form the foundations for a host of other new models from the Volkswagen Group stable in the coming years. However, it’s too new right now for us to comment on reliability.
A three-year, 60,000-mile warranty is standard on the Enyaq iV, as is an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the battery that also covers loss of performance should the battery performance (and therefore the maximum range) drop below 75%. You can extend the standard warranty up to five years and 100,000 miles for around £600.
Ultimately, electric cars tend to be more reliable than petrol or diesel cars simply because they have far fewer moving parts. An electric motor has around four of them as opposed to the 10,000-odd moving parts in a combustion engine. Skoda as a brand also has a good reputation for reliability. It was rated fifth out of 31 brands included in the 2020 What Car? Reliability Survey, and also came fifth out of the 30 marques included in the 2020 Driver Power Survey (which covers new car customer satisfaction as well as reliability).
- The battery sizes you’ll see referenced all over Skoda’s website are actually ‘total’ battery capacity. Every modern EV’s battery has some dormant cells that can’t be charged or discharged; they sit there, effectively doing nothing, but they’re important as they help to protect the long-term battery life and performance. When you include all of these cells, it’s called the ‘total’ (or gross) battery capacity. The battery capacity that is actually active and powering the car is called the ‘usable’ (or net) capacity, and in the Skoda’s case this is 58kWh and 77kWh for the 60 and 80 models, respectively. Confusingly, where Skoda states total battery capacity, Volkswagen states usable, hence why you’ll see the ID.4’s battery being described as 77kWh on the VW site while Skoda lists 82kWh. In reality, they both have exactly the same batteries, despite this peculiar and misleading difference in public communications.
- Brake regeneration is quite mild in the Skoda. This is a system where the car brakes as you lift off the throttle, using its natural forward momentum to harvest extra energy back into the battery to improve your range. Every EV has it to some extent, albeit some have many modes and some very few, which can range from entirely off to very heavy, one-pedal driving. In default mode the Skoda’s brake regen’ is barely noticeable at all, but you can nudge it into a heavier ‘B’ setting via the gear selector, while the 80 also gets steering column-mounted paddles that allow you select additional levels of regen’. All modes are very smooth and easy to judge, so it won’t take you long to get used to it, even if you’ve never driven an EV. There’s no ‘one pedal’ mode, as you get in the Kia e-Niro. And don’t worry, the brake lights do come on automatically when an EV uses heavy brake regeneration.
- In that fairly extensive list of options that we’ve already mentioned, you’ll see a heat pump costing just over £1,000. You don’t need to add this just to get heating in the cabin; of course that’s standard, as is dual-zone climate control. The heat pump actually brings more efficient heating and helps to keep the car’s battery at optimum temperature, and will therefore improve your driving range, particularly in winter. It’s estimated that the optional heat pump can reduce the energy used to heat the car by some 40% in very cold temperatures. It’s pricey, though, so if you don’t really expect to need long range ability in winter, you shouldn’t consider it an essential addition.
- If you want long-range comfort: Go for the Skoda Enyaq iV 80 and pick whichever of the various interior designs you prefer (they range from leatherette, to wool and textile, to full leather). Remember to add the rapid charging upgrade and also the heat pump if you can stretch to it. Every Skoda Enyaq iV gets adjustable lumbar support for the seats, but for £400 we’d suggest adding the Climate Basic Package with heated seats, tri-zone climate control and heated front washers. The Assisted Drive Package (about £700) with adaptive cruise control and blind spot protection is also a very savvy addition if you expect to do a lot of motorway miles.
- If you want the best value: The Skoda Enyaq iV 60 is one of the cheapest ways into a big family EV, as well as being one of the best. The optional reversing camera and front parking sensors (about £500) are pretty essential since the Enyaq is a big car and it’s not always easy to judge its extremities, but otherwise the essential equipment is included so save your cash.
- If style matters: If you' don't particularly want the extra power of the vRS, the Skoda Enyaq iV 80 Sportline is the most assertive-looking Enyaq on offer. It gets 20-inch alloy wheels and full Matrix LED headlights (optional on every other model) as standard, as well as a striking blue paint colour. Or opt for one of the brighter metallic paints for a bit more ‘look at me’ factor.
- If you’re a company car buyer: Benefit in Kind tax costs are very low for electric cars, so if your company will allow it, you may as well go for one of the most expensive versions, namely the Enyaq 80 iV Sportline, and add all the extra packs that you want - a panoramic roof, head-up display and keyless entry are tempting - to make it properly luxurious. And, your monthly tax bills will be barely any different.
