The Skoda Enyaq Coupé RS iV electric car doesn’t fit so easily into any box. Is it a coupe or an SUV? A sports utility or a family car? An economical ride or an electricity guzzler? After a week with this most powerful electric car from Skoda, I’ll try to answer all this and probably more in today’s review…
The Skoda Enyaq Coupé RS iV is both the most powerful and the most expensive car the Skoda brand currently has on offer. The Enyaq Coupé is based on the modular MEB platform that we know well from Volkswagen and its ID4 GTX model, which is actually its twin. The cars are even identical in strength and so the biggest difference is only in the differently shaped bodywork and interior. Personally, I prefer the Skoda in terms of design.
The body of the Enyaq Coupé catches the eye at first glance, and especially then in this optional green color called Mamba Green, which draws the stares of perhaps everyone around. Sharply cut edges appear and the front end in particular looks powerful and aggressive. The RS version is also distinguished from the classic version by one extra slat in C-segments, which are in the corners of the front bumper. The illuminated front “crystal” grille may look a bit kitschy here, but otherwise I have no complaints about the front-end design.
The Enyaq RS can have big 21-inch wheels for an extra cost, which are shod on 235/45/R21 tires. We had the winter setup, so 20s and… I have to write this down… terrible footwear. I don’t understand where Continental made a mistake but I haven’t heard such horrible tire noise in a long time. Overall they spoiled the impression with an otherwise quiet electric car.
The side silhouette is odd and, following the pattern of all those SUV coupes, the hence the rear roofline slopes down considerably. It’s nice, it’s image-enhancing, and you’re actually paying more for having a less practical car with a disproportionate rear end. On the other hand, I have quite a few people in my neighborhood who liked it, so as they say – a hundred people, a hundred tastes.
So the nicer design we tested means an understandably smaller boot, but not as dramatically as you might expect. In terms of numbers, it’s 570 versus 585 litres, but in exchange for less storage space you get a significantly better air drag coefficient. Thanks to the flowing butt, the Cx is 0.234, whereas it’s 0.257 for the regular Enyaq.
The atmosphere on board is pleasant, there’s plenty of space everywhere and the panoramic roof makes the Coupé version look airy to me too. The huge rear-view mirrors are also excellent. In the back, despite the sloping roof, I can fit my 186 cm well and there’s no shortage of headroom or knee room.
Inside, apart from the sports seats, contrasting green thread stitching using alcantara on the dashboard and in the door panels, virtually everything is the same as the classic version of the Enyaq. The sport seats offer solid lateral guidance at the hips, but at the shoulders the seats are almost flat, so I fall out of the ideal seating position a bit in sharper driving. Taller individuals will be pleased with the ability to extend the seat cushion to support the thighs, which is invaluable on longer rides.
In the middle of the dashboard sits a 13″ display. The Skoda’s infotainment is just big enough, well-placed and quite simple. Although some of the assists are unnecessarily tedious to turn off, it responds quite quickly, even in freezing weather. Worse is its menu fluency and occasional freezing and then restarting the entire system. The Skoda Enyaq Coupé RS iV is equipped with ME3 software from the start, from which point cars will only be updated via OTA (over-the-air) or remote updates.
Also to be appreciated is the car’s camera system, where the 306-degree view makes parking a breeze. Perhaps only a higher camera resolution would be better suited to this flagship. The space under the infotainment system, where one usually rests one’s hand, which squeaks really solidly, is not pleasing. The perforated steering wheel feels very nice to hold and I much prefer the mechanical buttons on it to the touch pads on the competition. Otherwise, I have no further complaints about the workmanship and materials, and I’ll remind you that VW could take a cue here too. The very good audio system and also the wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto deserve praise, however, which is perhaps already commonplace at this price range.
I covered the assistance systems when I first tested the classic Enyaq, and the RSko we tested has them enhanced with an autonomous parking feature. You pick a spot (in your yard, for example), which you store in memory, and then the Enyaq can back itself from the street to your original spot. During the manoeuvre, it can avoid obstacles or stop itself if the obstacle would be incompatible with the route.
But let’s get to the most important thing that makes the Enyaq Coupé RS iV the RS it is – performance and drivability. Two electric motors – one for each axle – take care of propulsion here. So the Enyaq Coupé RS iV is an ATV but primarily and most of the time, only the rear axle is driven and only adds front drive when you demand more power or lose traction at the rear.
The rear one will provide 150 kW and it always works. It is a so-called synchronous electric motor, so the excitation of the coil is taken care of by permanent magnets. This solution has the advantage of high efficiency and long life. The disadvantage, however, is that it cannot disconnect from the driven axle. The permanent magnets somewhat brake the rotor, even when this is not entirely desirable. So the magnets simply keep attracting the coils.
The front axle is then connected to an asynchronous electric motor, which is not as powerful and will only offer 80 kW. The excitation here is not handled by permanent magnets, but by electric coils, and you can probably guess from the principle that the efficiency of such a motor will not be that high, because it needs to supply current to the coils. But it has its advantages in that, unless it is in the shot, no current flows to the coils and the motor then practically does not brake the rotation of the wheels at all. So it only connects when necessary, for example when you require a lot of power or when there is a risk of losing traction.
The total system output of the two electric motors is 220 kW (300 hp) and 460 Nm (460 lb-ft). The dynamics are excellent under ideal conditions and in a charged state, and the throttle response is excellent as well. Acceleration to 60 takes a paper-thin 6.5 seconds and top speed is limited to 180 km/h (so you’ll be overtaken by old Golfs and Octavias on German motorways).
But unlike internal combustion cars, in Enyaq, when you step on the gas pedal in any situation, it shoots forward. It doesn’t matter if you’re going 50 or 150 mph, if you’re on a straight or a curve. And it’s in turns and in the snow that the all-wheel drive with electric motors shows just how clever it is. There are no clutches, gimbals or differentials to deal with. The motors on the axles send mammoth torques to the wheels and they don’t spin in the slightest, they engage. The drive itself and the torque vectoring is tuned to perfection. The only thing to reckon with is the weight at 2255 kg and remember that physics can’t be fooled.
So, if you like to go fast through twisty backroads, you’ll be more impressed with the Enyaq RS’s chassis than you’d think. The low centre of gravity thanks to the battery in the floor has a not inconsiderable influence on this. And with the more powerful engine found on the rear axle and always engaged, the car has a distinctive rear-wheel drive character, which you can clearly feel, especially in the serpentines. Throttle cornering is a very addictive thing.
The Enyaq RS has a ground clearance lowered by 15mm at the front and 10mm at the rear and a harder tuned chassis. Combined with the big wheels, it occasionally lets some of that roughness into the interior, but surprisingly it doesn’t detract much from the overall comfort and the car just rocks effortlessly. It’s also interesting to turn on sport mode, where the chassis and steering stiffen up and it’s more fun to drive overall. On motorways, the car’s dynamism then comes through in the form of instant acceleration. From the outside, the fact that all you can hear is the swish around the rather large side mirrors (and noisy winter tyres!) makes it all seem a bit futuristic.
So on a full charge, the Enyaq Coupé RS iV is a missile, but when the battery drops below 88 percent capacity, overall power drops and the manufacturer guarantees only 195 kW (261 hp). Most drivers probably won’t even recognise this, but the problem arises when you have less than 40 per cent battery. That’s where further power limitation occurs and it’s already noticeable enough. The battery has a capacity of 82 kWh and of that only 77 kWh is usable. The WLTP range is 518 km and the normalized consumption is 17kWh/100km. I believe that in summer conditions these values are quite realistic.
We drove the car mostly in town and on county roads and only occasionally got short highway shifts. However, the problem was that the temperatures ranged between 3°C and -6°C during the week, so frequent use was made of heating the steering wheel, seats, windows, mirrors and also preheating and heating to a higher temperature while driving. Consumption for city and county driving, at these freezing temperatures, was around 25-30 kWh/100km. The motorway demanded some 5-10kWh/100km more. The average after a week was 27.5 kWh/100km and the range after charging to 100% was a meagre 280km at -3 degrees. So the range is almost half of what it was in the summer – that’s the toll of electromobility.
Recharging in these freezing temperatures is also much slower. The Enyaq has a claimed on-board charger output of up to 135kW. Theoretically, it should take some weak half an hour on a 350kW Ionity charger to go from 20% to 100%. The reality, however, was that at those outside temperatures the Enyaq was only charging at around 50kW, and I spent my youth on UltraMegaHyper chargers as well. In winter it’s a totally awesome discipline.
If anyone wants to argue that you need to charge at home from a wallbox, so be it. The vehicle came with a cable and home wall outlet charger. From the one at 230V, charging from 40% to 100% would take a flat 36 hours according to the on-board computer’s estimate. With a 380V reduction fitted, the time would be cut to about half. Again, I believe that in the summer months these disciplines will be completely elsewhere. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is a form of discomfort.
Pricing started at €58,290 at the time of the test for the Enyaq Coupé RS iV. The test piece with the Family, Parking Plus, Climate Plus, Navigation Plus, Assisted Drive Plus, Functionality, Drive Sport Plus and Comfort Seats Plus option packs was already priced at €68,228. And that’s practically a fully equipped car where there’s not much to improve – the RS version is as good as new, so let’s go for the verdict:
I like the Enyaq Coupé RS iV as such a nimble weekend car. The SUV variant is more suited for those individuals who need more trunk space and more headroom. I also dare say that the RS variant will grab the heart of not only more than one electric car lover, but maybe even some petrolhead who wants to give electric mobility a chance and wants to be entertained by the car. And for now, while electromobility is still an option and not a “Must Have” – there is that option right now in the form of this car.
