New Skoda Enyaq: the complete guide to Skoda’s first bespoke electric car

Skoda has created its identify as a result of excellent performance and course-leading practicality. But how will the Czech brand name deliver these values in pure-electric vehicles?

The reply is the Skoda Enyaq iV – so it’s time for an in-depth search at the new SUV. We talk to Skoda’s CEO and the firm’s design and style manager, and meet the individuals helping to squeeze the car into Skoda’s hometown factory. We take a look at a Uk dealer, way too, to see how prepared the brand name is for prospective electrical car buyers.

To cap it all, we’ve taken a brand name-new Enyaq across the Uk – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Eire – in just 24 several hours, and on a solitary charge. Browse on down below and click on the back links above for anything you will need to know about Skoda’s initial bespoke electrical car.

About the Skoda Enyaq

The Skoda Enyaq iV is out there to get in the Uk now. Costs start from £31,085 (like the government’s £3,000 plug-in car grant), earning the new EV a somewhat larger alternative to the Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona Electric powered.

SkodaEnyaq iV sixty Nav is powered by a 62kWh battery pack, which feeds a 178bhp electrical motor mounted on the rear axle for a -62mph time of eight.7 seconds. Additional importantly, Skoda statements a greatest assortment of 256 miles, and when related to a 50kW DC swift charger its battery requires on an eighty per cent charge in as minimal as 35 minutes.

The more powerful Skoda Enyaq iV eighty is priced from £35,950 and features an 82kWh battery and a 201bhp electrical motor. The upgrades boost the SUV’s claimed greatest assortment to 333 miles and fall its -62mph time to eight.five seconds, while the larger battery pack usually means an eighty for each cent charge improves to all over forty minutes.

Skoda’s EV long run: CEO talks Enyaq and more

Skoda is on the cusp of one of the largest changes in the Czech firm’s 125-year heritage. There’s no question that the modern-day Skoda brand name we know now has thrived under VW Team possession above the past 3 decades, but just as the market as a entire is embracing entire electrification, it’s a issue Skoda and its rather new main government officer Thomas Schäfer know could be a leveller for the car market. It is also one he believes the brand name is beautifully poised to capitalise on with its initial bespoke electric car, the Enyaq iV.

“The Enyaq for us is absolutely a recreation changer. It unites us all fully driving this long run and how we shift the firm ahead,” he claims. “It’s a legitimate halo model that brings together all the usual values that our prospects enjoy: a lot of place, quite a few Simply Intelligent suggestions and easy to charge.”

Schäfer took above the leading job at Skoda at the start of August 2020, and approaching a year in charge, it’s crystal clear that from the really start the manager had a deep comprehending of the brand name and the ‘Skodians’ – every single member of the Skoda neighborhood, from employees in the factories to designers, engineers, sellers and even fans of the Czech marque.

After speaking with Schäfer for just 5 minutes, it’s noticeable he’s a realist but with aspirations for the brand name, and a manager who is in contact with Skoda’s clientele. He is aware that not all of the firm’s current and long run prospects may possibly know EVs inside out, or be completely receptive to the assumed of ditching their petrol or diesel car in favour of an electrical model. But he has a message to set their minds at rest, placing the purchaser initial in the buying conclusion and the adoption of electrification.

“We have expended a large amount of time on this question – how to fully grasp what the purchaser is hunting for and how we can reassure them to take away their problems about EVs how to shift from a standard car to an electrical one,” he clarifies. “This journey isn’t always as easy as you may think.

“But we are organized for this. We have experienced our sellers, we’ve experienced the organisations, and everybody is conscious of what the prospects may be having difficulties with: where’s the following charging station? How significantly can I go? Exactly where is the charging socket? But in the end, it’s nonetheless a Skoda, supplying all of the clever solutions and place that the brand name is regarded for.”

It sounds like marketing schtick, but Schäfer is appropriate. Evaluate the Enyaq objectively (we have) and you’ll realise that when he claims, “We didn’t consider to reinvent the car fully and do a thing distinct. We carried on with our tradition,” he’s appropriate. It is evidenced by the fact that you can toss a bicycle in the again of it, and even tow a trailer with the Enyaq not quite a few EVs are accredited to do so, which provides the iV a genuine issue of variance to some other electrical family SUVs.

The matter of differentiation could be a thorny subject, supplied quite a few other VW Team brand names this kind of as Volkswagen, Audi and Cupra also use the bespoke MEB system for EVs that the Enyaq is dependent on. Look at Skoda’s other combustion-engined and plug-in hybrid choices dependent on the MQB system (which VW, Audi, SEAT and Cupra also use) and the presence of a petrol or diesel engine permits for distinct calibration the motor is at the model’s coronary heart and frequently provides its character. But even by eradicating this crucial issue with a car like the Enyaq, Schäfer nonetheless doesn’t think it’s an difficulty.

 “The [MEB] system is really adaptable and gave us plenty of room, we think it’s very well differentiated,” Schäfer claims. “We’ve had a possibility to travel all of the MEB cars, and I would say the differentiation has been delivered correctly anything our crucial purchaser team appreciates in our cars is present. We created it a Skoda, but electrical.”

In a natural way, this initial action into a courageous new globe was not with no its problems. There are risks and issues for any company embarking on establishing its early EVs, but factoring in the recent political circumstance, the engineering concerned, the desires of Skoda’s current prospects and the drive to catch the attention of new ones, way too, it’s a tricky act to juggle the needed components of the deal. “We definitely commenced the project when the globe was not as it is now,” he claims, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic. “However, when it arrives to EVs I would say the globe has now turn out to be a large amount more particular above the past 18 months. Look at the European Eco-friendly Deal, search at various international locations asserting how they are going to do factors – the huge question is how quick?

“For us it’s really crucial we retain the pace up and match the speedier-establishing nations when it arrives to electromobility – but we also will need to provide the prospects in nations that aren’t establishing as quick when it arrives to electrical cars.”

It is in this article the place Schäfer outlines Skoda’s aim on parallel channels when it arrives to ICE cars and EVs. He’s a pragmatist who is aware that not everyone will want to adopt electrification immediately, and Skoda is nonetheless dedicated to establishing combustion-engined cars for as very long as is feasibly feasible the new Fabia supermini is launching later on this year, whilst the following-generation Excellent has been verified, way too.

No matter which form of vehicles Skoda develops and regardless of powertrain, they all have to meet the use conditions Skoda sets for by itself when it arrives to
how house owners in every single section will are living with their cars. Indeed, EVs are an inevitability, but by launching rather early with its Enyaq iV family SUV, Skoda is safeguarding its long run in quite a few ways.

Schäfer claims: “The challenge is how you equilibrium it all. We only have so considerably cash that we can expend, it’s not limitless. That’s why we’re not launching a vast assortment of EVs in the really beginning. So it was crystal clear that the crew required to aim on a car which serves the greatest range of prospects.

“That’s what we’ve found from the initial few of months getting orders. Quite a few have occur from exterior the brand name, but a lot are Skodians fortunately switching from one model to a further. We have demonstrated a thing that is definitely progressive.”

Of program, whilst Skoda has a various product or service portfolio now, in a decade’s time it will search appreciably distinct, and with a aim on EVs in the long run, the brand name has to safe that now when it arrives to components this kind of as manufacturing and supply. As a outcome, a battery factory in its residence nation could be pivotal in making certain Skoda’s electrical long run is certain. Schäfer is aware as considerably when we talk about his assurance in achieving a deal for one of the VW Group’s planned battery manufacturing centres to be positioned in just the Czech Republic.

“To guarantee that both equally Skoda and the nation emerge more powerful from the radical transformation approach,” he claims, adopting a polite phrase to explain the EV revolution, “we are certain that the Czech Republic need to evolve into an electromobility hub.”

A Czech gigafactory would be massively applicable to the brand name and its residence market, but it also likely have a good bearing on the selling price of Skoda’s long run EV products and its manufacturing functionality the Enyaq is the only European-created MEB model to be crafted exterior of the Zwickau plant in Germany, assembled at Skoda’s plant at Mladá Boleslav.

Electrification opens the agency up to a more psychological supplying, way too. Up to now, apart from the vRS sub-brand name, it has always stood for practicality and pragmatism in the modern-day period, but whilst Skoda isn’t deserting its heartland, new car architectures let it to insert new components in the long run, way too.

“You can have psychological components in your design and style, and we’re working on that, but this initial ten years of electrification will have a large economical demand from customers,” Schäfer clarifies. “But I would say excellent design and style doesn’t have to be high-priced and that’s what I think the crew has completed with the Enyaq. This is a car with an fantastic design and style and with the Coupé iV model and vRS derivatives, there is nonetheless plenty to occur.

“I think the design and style language will evolve, and with electrical cars you are a minimal bit freer to enjoy on the design and style side – and obviously the the greater part of our focus will now go into electrical cars. It has to.”

Schäfer touches upon one of Skoda’s crucial strengths with vRS, and it’s a thing that can be exploited even more broadly in the long run. The prompt effectiveness affiliated with electrical motors goes hand-in-glove with the vRS assortment. With no decline of practicality, electrification can give huge effectiveness, offering greater thrills for keener motorists with no compromising the components Skoda prides by itself on.

“The vRS is psychological Skoda,” Schäfer believes. “You get a large amount of effectiveness and excellent seems to be for a really small selling price when compared with what else is in the competitor place. On the electrical side it could enjoy out like this. When they initial confirmed me the Enyaq vRS and the Enyaq Coupé I assumed, ‘Oh wow’. vRS is a halo that will help us catch the attention of prospects from other fields. With high horsepower, its more sporty feeling, and the search and drivability, the car is in the appropriate route for a brand name like Skoda. We don’t do a thing that is not related to our roots, but we’ll do a minimal more with vRS as an electrical proposition in the long run.”

Enyaq is the present, but Schäfer has by now admitted that Skoda is working on a smaller EV to broaden the assortment. Very likely to be a compact SUV, it’s under growth, with the situation for this model – and likely more even smaller EVs – strengthened by purchaser response to Skoda’s initial bespoke EV. This reinforces how the Enyaq will tell the brand’s long run electrical assortment and hence why it’s so crucial.

On the matter of small EVs, Schäfer claims that for a small electric car costing considerably less than twenty,000 Euros, “I would say among 350 and 400km [217 to 248 miles] is likely a fair assortment, due to the fact you don’t definitely will need something more than that. It is this dance among price tag and assortment.”

This will outline the following ten years, not just for Skoda’s choices, but the VW Team and the market as a entire. Schäfer believes the novelty of electrical mobility is at this time pushing everyone into a “bigger, speedier and further” mentality, the place buyers overlook what they definitely will need in a car the dimensions of a usual family model, maybe one dimensions down below the Enyaq. But it’s all portion of adopting an electrical long run and getting used to owning, utilizing and dwelling with a car in a distinct way. Check with yourself this: even before the Covid-19 pandemic, when was the previous time you drove more than 200 miles in a working day? The the greater part of individuals may be shocked at the rather small length that they vacation on any supplied working day.

An average of ten,000 miles for each year (appreciably greater than the Uk once-a-year average) equates to just above 27 miles travelled for each working day even if it doesn’t really perform out like this in genuine everyday living, it reveals that EVs can perform for quite a few individuals if they have the set-up to make the most of them.

The way we purchase and personal cars will alter, way too, so Skoda’s approach need to also shift with the instances. Covid has accelerated this, with digital income and the digital showroom coming to the fore, but “these factors were embraced and even matters like mobility subscription products – things that was area of interest a whilst back – have all of a unexpected turn out to be pretty appealing,” according to Schäfer. The brand name is by now seeking to simplify how a car is configured. Schäfer claims: “It’s a myth to think that you will need ten,000 distinct choices for a car the dimensions of an Octavia. Just deal it thoroughly.”

The Enyaq is showing the way on quite a few fronts, then. Its growth and release have been a voyage of discovery for Skoda, but the brand name has learnt speedily – and the early indications are that it has the appropriate car for the undertaking at hand.

What does the Skoda Enyaq have to conquer? Czech out our record of the very best electrical cars on sale now…