Skoda Enyaq iV Coupe review

Few cars are easier to get in and go than this. Settle yourself in, pop it into Drive or B mode (you don’t even need to press a Start button, there isn't one), and off you go. The steering is well weighted, the accelerator and brake pedals progressively smooth, and pitch and roll well contained thanks to the low centre of gravity.

The ride is on the firm side, with bumps and lumps in the roads a little jarring in the cabin, which isn’t great on our broken British network. But the same could be said for any two-tonne-plus electric SUV on these shores. Still, it breezes along nicely at motorway speed, with minimal wind and road noise.

All models get paddles on the steering wheel to adjust the amount of brake regeneration, though we mostly stuck it in B mode, with the regen strong enough that you can spend most of your journey driving on the accelerator only.

Is it quick?

Zero to 62mph takes around 6.5 seconds in all but the vRS model, thanks to recent horsepower boosts. The vRS car gets there in 5.3s. As ever, whatever model you go for you won’t be short of torque, with all the Enyaq Coupes sending 402lb ft of torque through the rear wheels and the four-wheel-drive models adding 99lb ft through the front wheels for extra traction. Most of that torque is found low down, too, which means it’s pleasingly nippy around town, despite its heft.

So it’s quick. But not raucously so. You’d think that a performance EV would have to shift the paradigm a little and find a new way to engage the driver. Unfortunately Skoda hasn’t quite nailed the hot electric SUV that it’s trying to promise.

It’s just not a car that responds well to being pushed. Aim it at a corner and the lack of steering feel means you'll struggle to pick a consistent line, which doesn't exactly scream 'Monte Carlo Rally winner' does it?

This is a shame, because the benefit of a 'sports suspension' that lowers the ride height by 15/10mm front and rear has barely any impact on handling. And if it's handling you want from an electric car like this, the Jaguar I-Pace had it sussed years ago. You can discover more about how we got on in the vRS by clicking these blue words.

Is there much difference in efficiency?

The entry-level Enyaq is officially rated at 4.2mi/kWh, with the all-wheel-drive variant slipping to 3.9. We averaged around 3.5mi/kWh in the former in mild temperatures, which is a pretty good return.

Meanwhile the vRs promises 4.0mi/kWh, and we got 3.7 in slightly warmer weather. Deploy all of that power though and you'll easily get that down to 3.0.

Still, you’ll likely eke out a couple more miles of range in the Coupe compared with the regular Enyaq, thanks to its aerodynamic shape: 0.23Cd plays 0.26. Skoda claims up to 355 miles of range in the RWD Coupe, 322 miles in the AWD models and 324 miles in the vRS. As ever, expect around two thirds of that in the real world.