CZECH CHARGE (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 90

Skoda's first volume production full-electric car, the Enyaq iV, used Volkswagen Group EV technology to good effect. Based around the Wolfsburg conglomerate's advanced MEB electrified platform, it set new standards for the brand in terms of quality but the old attributes of value and practicality remain. Take cost, range and space into account and this is a difficult package to better in the segment for mid-sized Crossover EVs if you're looking for one from the 2021 to 2024 period. Here, we rate the pre-facelift early Enyaq as a used buy.

Modelsword count: 2

5dr SUV

Historyword count: 430

From the launch of the Enyaq iV, we were told that it had been 'designed from the ground up' by the brand to deliver 'a completely new driving experience'. Inevitably, the reality was a little different. Under the sharply suited skin, this was merely Skoda's take on the five-door upper mid-sized crossover EV design also sold by the VW Group's other marques; Volkswagen had it as the ID.4, Audi as the Q4 e-tron and CUPRA as the Tavascan. Yet even so, there was lots of interest here, the Enyaq being yet another Skoda that pushed the brand up-market. There was even an alternative swept-back 'Coupe' version of the standard five-door SUV body style to emphasise the point. In this car's standard form, it was from launch easily the most affordable of the quartet of Wolfsburg-financed EVs we just mentioned. And, interestingly if you happen to be a follower of the Czech maker, it marked a return to the rear-mounted powertrain and rear wheel drive design layout not seen on Skodas since the infamous budget models of the '60s and '70s. It was also the only VW Group EV not built in Germany: and the only one to be assembled in a factory still making combustion models. Skoda has always had an eye for electric car design. It's first one, the Lauren & Klement E - brainchild of engineer and inventor Frantisek Krizik - dates right back to 1908, though that was actually a hybrid, with a 28PS petrol engine generating drive electricity. But full-electric Skodas were to follow. A compact truck in the late '30s, the Favorit-based Eltra 151L model for the Swiss market in 1981, the Octavia Green E Line development model in 2011 and, finally, Skoda's first production EV, the short-lived Citigo e IV of 2020. So full-battery power is nothing new to this Czech maker. But it will be to many of its customers. Which is why so much effort was made here to help ease them into this brave new world of electrified mobility. The designers held back on some of the slightly futuristic exterior and cabin styling cues you'll find on some of the EVs in this class from this period. And there are all the usual Skoda 'Simply Clever' practical touches to make ownership that little bit easier. In 2023, just as the sporting vRS version arrived, the 'iV' part of this car's name disappeared and it was simply badged the 'Enyaq'. Here, we'll focus on the early 2021-2024 versions of this model, the cars produced before the mid-term facelift that arrived in early-2025.

What You Getword count: 753

From the launch of this Enyaq iV, we were told that the look of this car was 'bold, futuristic and immediately recognisable as a Skoda'. Well, that rather depends on what you recognise the Skoda to be. It's safe to say that until 2021, this wasn't the kind of thing you'd have expected to find in one of the Czech maker's showrooms. We're now in a new era though, one that was enthusiastically embraced here by Oliver Stefani's design team, who set out to create a powerfully elegant full-electric family SUV. It certainly makes a statement at the front. A grille may be unnecessary to cool an EV but modern automotive design looks ugly without it and with this car's hexagonal appendage, flanked by angular LED headlights, Skoda went all out. It's from the side that you realise the Enyaq to be a larger, slightly more up-market thing than, say, a MK2 Nissan LEAF or a Kia eNiro from this era. The near-4.7metre length positions it closer in size to Skoda's spacious Octavia and the wheels - between 19 and 21-inches in size, the largest ever fitted as standard to a Skoda - remind you that this is the VW Group's Czech alternative to an ID.4, not an ID.3. A bit like its cousin, the Audi Q4 e-tron, this Skoda is available both in conventional SUV form or also with a separate body style offering a slightly sportier silhouette; in that 'Sportback'-style guise, it's called the Enyaq Coupe. A closer glance at the rear of the SUV version reveals why the more swept-back option was needed: the conventional version would look quite practical and boxy were it not for the way that its tailgate is framed by a matt black roof spoiler. The cabin will be nothing like anything you'll ever have experienced in a Skoda. Either in terms of quality: or design. For a start, you're left pleasantly confused as to exactly what kind of car this is, thanks to the way that the slightly raised seating height of a Crossover has been somehow combined with a windscreen that pushes so far forward you'd think you were in a big MPV. Then there's the dashboard, unusually contoured in a series of layers. It's all really very up-market, yet combustion engine converts will feel instantly at home, with none of the rather weird and futuristic trimming and design flourishes championed by some rivals in this segment from this period. Otherwise, once you've worked out that the start button's hidden on the steering column and that the transmission is marshalled by this tiny button between the seats, your first impressions of this cabin are going to be centred around its screen technology. The Enyaq iV ignored the current trend for portrait centre displays, but its 13-inch landscape-orientated monitor is still fashionably big. Nor, thankfully, was Skoda tempted here to follow the Tesla trend for mounting driving instruments onto the central monitor, these sitting instead in a conventionally binnacled colour screen you view through the steering wheel. What else? Well the seats are as good as they look, generously proportioned and supportive. And there's loads of storage space, thanks to a vast open 11.4-litre area below the lower centre console, deep carpeted door bins and a big 6.2-litre stowage box between the seats. Get settled in the back and, as usual in a Skoda, you'll find leg room that's difficult to better in segment. Two six footers could sit comfortably behind a couple of front seat occupants of the same size. This is also a wider cabin than you might expect a mid-sized SUV to be able to provide and with no central transmission tunnel to obstruct things, three adults could actually fit reasonably easily into the back of this car. We're going to finish by considering the boot - which by the way you'll have to use for all significant cargo storage because unlike with some other rival EVs in this class, there's no extra luggage room in the nose of the car. Once the tailgate's raised, a big 585-litre space is revealed. Despite the presence of an electric motor down under the floor, which eliminates any possibility of having the usual under-floor central storage area. Or of course, any sort of spare wheel. You do though, get a deep narrow well beneath the cargo base's leading edge, into which the charging leads can (just about) be stored. Once the rear bench is retracted, there's up to 1,710-litres of capacity loaded to roof height.

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