Skoda Enyaq iV 80 - long-term review

For a family car the Enyaq has an incredible amount of tech in it. Some people either love it or hate it. I’m a little in the middle. Here's what I've learned so far.

I’m constantly reaching to turn off the lane-keep 'assist' control in any car I get in to. But as times move, so do industries and we either embrace it or fight it.

Fighting neatly describes what I do daily with the Enyaq’s central iPad-esque screen. At first I found it overwhelming. My middle-aged eyes could not compute all the things on the screen. Then the fighting began as I realised simple functions were three prods deep into menus. Some functions have multiple ways of getting to things, and some functions had overcomplicated the basics.

I mean why can’t we have just a normal heating system: either 'on' or 'off' controlled by buttons and dials. VW Group needs to learn very fast indeed that in this case, less is not more. My colleague Ollie Kew has ranted many a time about the VAG systems and how they're stupidly overcomplicated and yet the screen is woefully slow. Sadly the same is true here.  My children are still discovering functions: “look daddy, you can change the colour of the background depending on how you feel…” Red seems to be the colour of anger, I mean choice…

The slider for your finger across the bottom of the screen to control the volume still baffles me. Surely the boffins were having an off-day when they thought of that. It's very un Skoda-like.

I do however like the size of the centre screen. Being big, you've got a chance of hitting the icon you were aiming for. Unfortunately the size of the screen straight ahead of the driver is too small, especially the battery icon. Which is a shame, as it’s the key readout in an EV, especially for a novice like me. 

On a positive note, I’m quite taken by the design of the Enyaq, I think it’s a very sharp looking design with interesting touches inside and out. The tiny drive selector drive stick that makes your hand look massive, the touch sliding roof button, the stylish stretched out name at the back, the meaty front splitter and the stunning concept wheels all add to the funky sleek charm. I hope the future design language follows this trend, but the tech starts from scratch.