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By Jonathan Crouch

Skoda sleek Enyaq Coupe gets an update. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 65

Emotive, sporty, elegant. Words that were foreign to the Skoda brand a couple of decades ago but are becoming increasingly apt as the company continues to push itself up-market. At its original launch, the Enyaq Coupe was the marque's smartest and most sophisticated car yet, a more dynamic take on this marque's first modern era electric vehicle, the Enyaq SUV. Well here's the updated version.

Backgroundword count: 182

An aspirational Skoda? Really? Absolutely. That's what we have here in the form of this improved version of the brand's Enyaq Coupe, an EV with attitude. The Enyaq Coupe arrived back in 2022 as a sportier-looking version of the Enyaq hatch we'd first seen two years earlier, delivered because the brand programme required it. By the time of this model's original launch, we'd already seen the same thing with the VW Group models that shared this car's MEB platform; Volkswagen's ID.4, which had gained a coupe cousin with the ID.5. And the Audi Q4 e-tron, which had gained an alternative Sportback variant. The Enyaq Coupe though, was rather more significant for its maker than those two rivals. It was the most expensive Skoda the brand had ever made, in top vRS form the fastest and, perhaps most significantly, to most eyes was the most elegant car ever to wear the Czech maker's badge. The company claimed it 'perfectly combines emotion with efficiency'. If you agree, then the company hopes you'll be even more convinced by this updated version, facelifted in early 2025.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 375

You can of course expect the drive experience to be indistinguishable from that of the normal Enyaq SUV, though as before, the sleeker body shape means you get fractionally more EV drive range. There are no big drivetrain changes as part of this facelift. As before, the entry-level 85 model is rear-driven, a format that before this Enyaq arrived hadn't been previously seen on a Skoda since the brand's budget models of the '60s and '70s. It's one that benefits this car enormously in town, where it offers an impressively tight 10.2-metre turning circle. Beyond the city limits, traction is impressive but there's a little more body roll through the turns than you'd get with the alternative Volkswagen, CUPRA and Audi versions of this VW Group design. The pay-off for that though, is a much better standard of ride, with suppleness over poor surfaces and speed humps that's un-bettered in this class and is far superior to most rivals. When fitted with an optional folding towbar, any Enyaq is also capable of towing trailers weighing up to 1,400kg. You ease away in an Enyaq, rather than needing to moderate the kind of frantic forward thrust that seems more normal of an electric vehicle these days. That doesn't really suit any 2.0-tonne SUV and it certainly wouldn't suit this Skoda, the relaxed drive dynamics of which, it's immediately clear, are geared towards lowering the heartbeat rather than raising it. What about powertrains? Well the base rear-driven Coupe model, the Enyaq 85, has a 286PS electric motor powered by a 82kWh battery (net) with a range of 365 miles (6 miles better than the SUV). There's 545Nm of torque, top speed is 112mph and 62mph from rest takes 6.7 seconds. You can also opt for the Enyaq Coupe 85x, also uses the same 82kWh battery and motor output, but adds an extra axle motor to create four wheel drive, which means extra weight, hence the reduction in range to 334 miles (2 miles better than the SUV). At the top of the range is the Enyaq Coupe vRS performance model, which shares its 82kWh battery and 4WD system with the 85x, but ups output to 340PS, sprints to 62mph in 5.5s and has a 338 mile range.

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