Our Škoda Enyaq long-termer continues to show its practical side.

Enyaq 85 Edition

P11d (BIK): £44,485 (2%) RANGE: 348 miles ON FLEET: 290 miles EFFICIENCY: 3.5mpkWh

Report 4:

To my mind, there are two types of people in life. Those who are impressed by all-singing, all-dancing light displays in cars and those who aren’t.

I am definitely one of the former. I actually smiled when I first saw the Enyaq’s puddle lights. I still give a little smile now when the animated lights dance up when I walk past with the keys and I love the Coming/Leaving Home function. You can even change the tail-light settings. Meanwhile, the kids have pointed out the ambient lights in the cabin to friends while my mates noticed them straight away too.

The full LED Matrix headlights with variable light distribution are also amazing. I smile again when I put main beam on and the lights dance up, and it’s fascinating to watch – as much as you can while driving – how they adjust to stop dazzling other road users. The sensors picked up on a rather reflective road sign once and politely blocked it out – cause for another smile – but generally work very well.

The touch sliding functions for the panoramic sunroof and its cover have proved a party trick with the kids but I now just keep the cover open to let light flood in. It’s a roomy cabin anyway but particularly so with the roof fully uncovered.

After a fair bit of time behind the wheel, I can completely vouch for the quality of the Enyaq’s interior. The EcoSuite Design Selection on our model might not be everyone’s cup of tea, with its ‘Cognac’ leather seats, faux leather dashboard with stitching, Cognac piping on the mats and the piano black décor but personally I think it elevates the cabin and gives a very plush look, and it’s been well received by all my passengers to date.

It’s also seriously hard-wearing and robust too. After a few months with the Škoda, it’s looking every bit as premium as when it arrived (that might be tempting fate…)

The seats are really comfortable and I like the squared-off seat squabs, designed for more longer limbs, while also accommodating more average heights nicely too.

I also like the handy child lock buttons, located just by the window switches for the driver. Bit late for my kids now but they would have been hugely useful years ago.

Despite its plush look, the cabin on the Enyaq is actually really practical. Between me and my sons, we have a whole brace of accoutrements that we like handy, from my water bottle and various pairs of glasses/sunnies to their hairbrushes for the school run and travel sweets. The Enyaq’s centre console just swallows it all up. Any complaints I’ve ever had about any other car’s storage space have just melted away. The bottle holders cater for all sizes and there’s even removable cubby sections for tailored storage. There’s also a double layer underneath.

I’ve even now put the Enyaq’s centre console to the test by using it to transport an open 4-pint bottle of milk – possibly trumping editor Challen’s gravy jug that he transported in a Honda ZR-V. Said bottle of milk arrived intact at its destination.

Passenger space is also great. This is one sizeable car – and it means passengers onboard get plenty of room. I can’t imagine anyone struggling for head space. Visibility is also great – much better than I was expecting too – despite the Enyaq being rather long and having some rather thick C-pillars. Along with the front and rear parking sensors and rear-view camera, it means parking is a lot easier than I’d have thought.

I was also pleasantly surprised with a recent trip to a multi-storey in Poole where I thought the Enyaq’s bulk might prove a problem. Said car park is some 50 years old and built for the days of smaller cars, as shown by the many scrapes on the ramps. The drivers of the BMW X5 arriving before me and the Mitsubishi L200 leaving before me were clearly worried too, given their slow pace and back-and-forth manoeuvring but the Škoda was actually easier to pilot round than I’d been expecting.

The boot is definitely practical. It’s squarely shaped, completely flat and a great height for loading. It also comes with a flip-down section through to the rear seats, a plethora of pull-down hooks, a 12V socket and flippers both sides to plip down the seats – along with another one in the front door. With just days to go until the annual Middleton pilgrimage, it will be pressed into use.

Report 3:

We’re averaging around 290 miles of range per full charge

Some longer-distance journeys have seen our Enyaq perform well in recent months while also demonstrating its more frugal side when it comes to going through the electrons.

Our Great British Fleet Event in Milton Keynes late April was a good case in point. Work commitments meant that I left late the evening before the show and was highly unlikely to have any time to charge before heading back the next night, and not even when I got home in the wee small hours.

With 280 miles ‘in the tank’, a 220-mile round journey and no desire to stop anywhere in the dark to charge, I took it steady and completed the 110-mile trip using 117 miles of charge one way and 114 the other. The biggest challenge was not burning through range on motorways and dual carriageways, which entailed sticking to under 70mph. On rural routes, and even quiet suburban roads, keeping the range in parallel with the sat-nav mileage countdown was pretty easy.

That’s remained the case ever since and I’ve found that the figure for miles left is generally keeping pace with miles covered (albeit with the odd random leap). That’s surprised me as having a home charger now means I’ve got a trifle nonchalant generally and don’t tend to actively eco-drive as I did with other EVs when I was reliant on public chargers. Despite this, I’m still getting around 290 miles out of a ‘tank’ compared to the official figure of 348.

Range is definitely being helped by the eco setting in D mode with radar and smart sign recognition, whereby the car adjusts regen braking in line with the prevailing speed limit in D mode. It’s got clear eco benefits along with safety but is easily overridable.

The regen braking on the Škoda is easy to use and has three levels of assistance, again in D mode. But one thing that I’ve not got used to is the fact that the paddles to adjust it are fixed to the back of the steering wheel, not the column. If you’re steering into or out of a corner, the shifters are very often out of reach and I’ve had to just give up and use the brake pedal in some situations.

One other thing I like is that our Czech electric long-termer has an inbuilt cover for the Type 2 AC connector built inside the flap, which means you don’t need to worry about popping any cover back on again. Good old Škoda practical thinking.

Report 2

The return to electric motoring has on the whole gone extremely well and I’m embracing the opportunity to cut my carbon footprint and my motoring costs at the same time.

We did have a slight hiccup a few weeks after the Enyaq arrived when it suddenly came up with an error one morning. A rather scary looking message told me ‘Electric drive not working correctly. Stop vehicle safely.’ It also flatly refused to start.

A quick Google indicated that other drivers of other Enyaqs, as well as Volkswagen’s mechanically related ID.4, have also suffered the same issue but with some very different causes.

A very nice man from the AA came out but couldn’t sort the error and thought it was related to a software update. So the fully electric SUV headed back for a check-up with its Czech maker.

They say every cloud has a silver lining – and the issue with our silver Enyaq (well, Brilliant Silver Metallic) turned out to have a silver lining too as we ended up with a bright orange Enyaq vRS for some two weeks.

The pinnacle of the Enyaq line-up, it has two electric motors, giving all-wheel drive along with a hefty 340hp of power and 545Nm of torque. It also delivers a top speed of 111mph and a 0-62mph time of 5.7 seconds – making it the fastest-accelerating production Škoda ever made. Despite all that extra performance, its 77kWh battery delivers a WLTP range of 336 miles – only a smidge off the 348 for the 85 Edition with the same battery.

It also looks the part – from the in-yer-face Metallic Orange paint job, 20-inch alloys with aero inserts and sports bumpers, through to the vRS Suite design selection for the interior with carbon-look dashboard. My favourite bit – it came with the divisive Crystal Face grille that my husband and I argued over getting for our own Enyaq, ordered through a salary sacrifice firm before a series of delays put paid to plans.

I thought I would struggle with the return to our slower and less flamboyant original test car – which turned out to have a fault with one of the sensors connecting to the 12V battery. This was replaced as part of a sealed control unit. But in the end, heading back to the 85 Edition, with its 286hp, longer range and softer suspension was by no means a chore.

In fact, the biggest drop was with the actual price tag  – including all extras, our standard Enyaq comes out some £10k less than its haloed vRS brother, providing some veritable food for thought.

P11d (BIK): £44,485 (2%) RANGE: 348 miles ON FLEET: N/A EFFICIENCY: N/A

As our SEAT Ateca moves onto another team member, I’m now heading behind the wheel of a distant relation, slightly removed, in the form of the Škoda Enyaq.

Built on the Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform and closely related to the Volkswagen ID.4, the Enyaq launched early 2021 as Škoda’s second electric car and its first electric SUV. Also available as the more rakish Enyaq Coupe, it’s being joined by the Elroq compact SUV, an electric successor to the Karoq, which arrives later this year as the first of six new Škoda battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The brand has also newly previewed its Epiq entry-level crossover ahead of its 2025 unveiling.

Ours is the Enyaq 85 model, complete with a 286hp rear-mounted motor, giving a top speed of 111mph and a 0-62mph time of 6.7 seconds. Along with the all-wheel drive 85x, it sits above the entry-level Enyaq 60 but below the flagship dual-motor vRS model – which boasts 340hp and a 5.5-second sprint for the 0-62mph dash.

It was previously known as the Enyaq 80 but, as with most of the range, was given extra range, power and equipment for the 2024 model year.

In terms of vital statistics, the Enyaq 85’s 82kWh battery gives an official WLTP range of 348 miles and WLTP consumption of 4.1mpkWh. I’m not the greatest at hypermiling in ICE cars and my EV skills are a bit rusty so it’ll be interesting to see how the range fares – but luckily the Enyaq has rocked up as the UK weather (hopefully) is warming up.

Our Edition grade comes with a mighty long list of features, such as adaptive cruise control, heated front seats, keyless entry and LED Matrix headlights. In fact, too many to go into for this report. It’s also fitted with various design and comfort-orientated packages and options, bringing the total OTR price to £48,140. As always, it’s the brand’s signature Simply Clever features that I look forwards to the most.

Electric vehicles might not be everyone’s cup of tea but for me personally, after nearly two years of being back driving ICE cars, I can’t wait – not just for the elevated performance and technology that electric cars give but also to slightly escape that feeling of guilt every time there’s images of melting ice caps on the news.

As someone who does have a home charger fitted, I’m on the right side of the ‘driveway divide’. But having previously relied solely on public charging for the first five months of my last electric long-termer, I know that anything is possible if you want to make an electric car work.

Really looking forwards to the next five months.