► Our second month with the Skoda Enyaq
► Here’s a few things we don’t like
► Read month 1
I just got into a remarkably together-feeling 650,000km Skoda Superb taxi at Zagreb airport and was reminded again of the unfussy practicality and durability that makes us love this brand. Driver Sasha had put on half a million of those kilometers. I don’t plan to do the same in this Enyaq, but its fundamental qualities and effect on the driver are the same.
It’s comfortable, spacious and easy to live with. So please keep that in mind while I pick a few holes in it. There are a few minor ergonomic irritations, like the row of physical switches taking you straight to functions like climate on the main screen, which are too easy to knock with your hand as you reach into the phone cubby below them, putting the hazards on.
And once in that cubby your phone sits at an angle that prevents you seeing if the wireless charging is working. This might be deliberate to avoid distraction, but it just seems to cause more faffing and peering.
More seriously, the Enyaq came on a set of Hankook tyres which are causing me concern, given the car’s 2.3-tonne mass, 335bhp peak output and near 60-grand price. I’ve had two noticeable ESP-triggered understeer moments in the Enyaq, compared to none at all in the four generally heavier and more powerful electric long-term test cars I’ve run previously.
There’s also a disconcerting lightness and lack of connection at motorway speeds in the wet. This may be unfair, as I’ve not done back-to-back tests, but for both I’m inclined to blame the rubber given that the rest of the chassis is so well sorted.
The other issue is the brakes, which are fine for ultimate retardation but too weak in their initial application, meaning I was arriving into junctions too quickly until I’d learnt to drive around the issue. It’s a shame: driving almost one-footed is one of the joys of EV ownership, but the brake calibration on the Enyaq sometimes takes me back to the combustion era.
Logbook: Skoda Enyaq Coupe iV vRS (month 2)
Price: £54,155 (£58,800 as tested)
Performance: 77kWh battery, twin e-motors, 335bhp, 5.5sec 0-62mph, 111mph
Efficiency: 3.9 miles per kWh (claimed), 3.5 (tested), 0g/km CO2
Range: 336 miles (claimed), 302 (tested)
Energy cost: 8.7p per mile
Miles this month: 1511
Total miles: 4667