Saving the planet, one year on

Soldato
Joined
28 Sep 2008
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Britain
If you follow the "When are you going electric" thread, you'll see that last year, I purchased a brand new Skoda Enyaq VRS. One year on, I thought it might be interesting to have an update as to how it's working out.

Said vehicle is a fully optioned Enyaq VRS in Hyper Green, although I chose to stick with the standard "alloys", all other options and packs were part of the "maxx package".

ZupmX1g.jpeg


Range:
Never seen more than 270 (Official is 317). It's got significantly better with mileage, and is strongly weather dependent

Long term economy:
The car reports 3.2mi/kW and in the warmer months tends to be just below 4mi/kW

Cost:
I've had probably 10 charges away from home at various EV points, the most expensive of which has been £0.72/kWh, and I only charge to 80pc
At home, I charge to 100pc and over the last year, it has cost me £582.90 in electricity using Octopus.

Mileage:
14399

What's it like
This car feels faster than it is, and has no right to be as fast as it is. It might not be hugely quick in the traffic light GP, but it builds speed ridiculously quickly, overcoming it's weight with no real issue. It's super smooth and incredibly quiet inside the cabin, which is just a really nice place to be. The Skoda seats are really comfortable and there is nothing I miss coming from other more expensive cars. In fact, in many areas, the Skoda does it better. What might seem like silly things, the tactile touch of the scroll wheels on the steering wheel, the fact that if you open a door at night, the ambient light turns red to alert cars (and you) that a door is open.
It's a mind shift driving experience as the car slows down regeneratively as it approaches a change in speed limit. Interestingly though, it doesn't do this in fully autonomous mode, if you set a speed limit and the traffic clears, it will resume to that limit. It generally puts a smile on my face, especially joining motorways or passing slower moving traffic.

Maintenance:
£0. Tyres are at 4.6mm all round, brakes have 80pc left

Tax:
£0

Insurance:
£800 per year
 
Ah yes the illusive secret bright green machine.

I think MEB cars are better than they seem to be regarded by the press/reports etc. Skoda with the physical buttons on the wheel and the nice dash seem to have cracked it to.

Is that your plate too?!
 
If I were to just be driving to and from work I would love one, but the mess that is the charging infrastructure in this country just puts me right off for now.
We have a van at work and it's a nightmare when you have say 5 miles remaining turn up at the charger and it's not working, or out of order, or got a car parked there. I'm just not working to deal with that from my main car.
I'm strongly going to consider a REx though, ticks all the boxes.
 
If I were to just be driving to and from work I would love one, but the mess that is the charging infrastructure in this country just puts me right off for now.
We have a van at work and it's a nightmare when you have say 5 miles remaining turn up at the charger and it's not working, or out of order, or got a car parked there. I'm just not working to deal with that from my main car.
I'm strongly going to consider a REx though, ticks all the boxes.
I will say, I've had probably 2 problems with charging publicly over the past year. One was a non working charger (and an incorrect charger listed on zapmap), and the other was waiting for a charger at a service station which was just an annoyance rather than anything technical. The picture above is the Northampton services off of the M1 (not on the M1) at junction 16. As I use Octopus, I have an "Electroverse" card, so any charging gets added to my energy bill. Electroverse have their own app too so I found this charging station, completely empty, less than 1/2 a mile from Junct. 16 of the M1, operating at 350kw. The Enyaq takes 125Kw (from memory), and I got that speed, so went from 11pc to 85pc in around 35mins, which was fine as I went for a sandwich, coffee and a toilet break.
 
The car reports 3.2mi/kW and in the warmer months tends to be just below 4mi/kW
sounds good across 14K - is that 50m/day commute @60, or longer motorway miles @70 ?
(private) £800 insurance is pricey but when you chose VRS over lower powered versions maybe you made that decision(+get adaptives too I guess)

[who knew johnny and I share an appreciation of MEB ! - dealer network versus chinese contingent attracts me, and latest drivetrain technology commitment ]
 
sounds good across 14K - is that 50m/day commute @60, or longer motorway miles @70 ?
(private) £800 insurance is pricey but when you chose VRS over lower powered versions maybe you made that decision(+get adaptives too I guess)

[who knew johnny and I share an appreciation of MEB ! - dealer network versus chinese contingent attracts me, and latest drivetrain technology commitment ]
Originally, back in June 2023, the car was purchased to cover a commute of 250 round trip, twice a week. That came to an end in September. The beauty of this though, was that the council run car park had installed 7kW chargers back in 2015, that were not listed on any charging map, and, were completely free to use - there were only 4 for the entire car park. All you had to do was pay for normal parking at £8 a day, but that was no different to any other car.

In the early days, the car used to get 2.7 - 3.1kW/mile, but since it's "run in" that has improved massively. Now, it gets a lot of local use (school run, shopping, days out) only with occasional long trips (probably once a month), and it is far better in the 30-50mph zone overall (averaging 3.7 to 4.2kW/mile).

In classic fashion my Enyaq was superseded within 12 months, which I guess is where this level of tech in EVs is heading. The 2024 Enyaq has the newer motors (more power, more efficiency), a different battery tech and critically, a higher rated DC circuit so it can take peak charging of 175kW.
 
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I will say, I've had probably 2 problems with charging publicly over the past year. One was a non working charger (and an incorrect charger listed on zapmap), and the other was waiting for a charger at a service station which was just an annoyance rather than anything technical. The picture above is the Northampton services off of the M1 (not on the M1) at junction 16. As I use Octopus, I have an "Electroverse" card, so any charging gets added to my energy bill. Electroverse have their own app too so I found this charging station, completely empty, less than 1/2 a mile from Junct. 16 of the M1, operating at 350kw. The Enyaq takes 125Kw (from memory), and I got that speed, so went from 11pc to 85pc in around 35mins, which was fine as I went for a sandwich, coffee and a toilet break.
I'm waiting for it to just be, drive up to the charger, chip and pin or contactless. Plug in and off it goes, I fail to see why there is a need for a dozen different apps overcomplicating it.
What happens if you don't have your phone with you or it's flat.
 
I'm waiting for it to just be, drive up to the charger, chip and pin or contactless. Plug in and off it goes, I fail to see why there is a need for a dozen different apps overcomplicating it.
What happens if you don't have your phone with you or it's flat.
To be fair that is exactly how petrol stations work yet I still faff around with a different app for each one because I'm too tight to pass up on the loyalty points :p

That is a pretty bold colour combined with that grille... not sure I could pull that off myself :D
 
To be fair that is exactly how petrol stations work yet I still faff around with a different app for each one because I'm too tight to pass up on the loyalty points :p

That is a pretty bold colour combined with that grille... not sure I could pull that off myself :D
There's no denying, it's quite a head turner. Especially new, a lot of the locals almost rear ended each other, but now it's a common site locally. However, last weekend, I had the pleasure(?) of driving through Bradford. It got a lot of attention. Shiny + Bling, what could go wrong :D
 
£0 in tyres, blimey I'm on my 3rd set in less mileage and similar timeframe, must stop hitting things, it's expensive :o :D
 
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( yes I think the ev market is like the wild west last man standing will be ?)

back in the room -
is the enyaqs adaptive suspension a useful option how do you set it -
as a prospective 2nd hand id3 owner that's my sentiment, rwd and reasonable insurance being other positives
 
I'm waiting for it to just be, drive up to the charger, chip and pin or contactless. Plug in and off it goes, I fail to see why there is a need for a dozen different apps overcomplicating it.
What happens if you don't have your phone with you or it's flat.

Do you routinely go out without your wallet and phone? As for the phone being flat, my 1970s Mk1 Escort had the capability to charge a phone, so I'm fairly sure a modern car can do this as well.
 
( yes I think the ev market is like the wild west last man standing will be ?)

back in the room -
is the enyaqs adaptive suspension a useful option how do you set it -
as a prospective 2nd hand id3 owner that's my sentiment, rwd and reasonable insurance being other positives
It's pretty good, it's just adaptive modes like "sport, normal, traction, eco", etc.

I'll admit, I thought that last year it had become mandated that all EV chargers must accept chip and pin (ie, no need for apps, etc). I've certainly never used an app other than finding a charger.
 
So it's cost you £582 to do 14,399 miles? <Insert impressive meme here> :)
I'm just doing some math... for me to do that many miles in my Ford S-Max (not that we would because it averages low 20s mpg) it would cost me over 4.5K in petrol annually.

So with petrol prices taken to currently be £1.45 (I've not filled up for a few weeks but this was the last price I remember) £582 worth of petrol buys you 401 litres. Which is 88.2 gallons.
So to match your miles to GBP cost with your elec car, you'd have to have a petrol car that did 163 miles per gallon I make it.
Diesel would be about 172 mpg (used £1.53 as average price).

So if we assume the average modern day similarly spec'd ICE car would average 40mpg, you are still more than 4 times cheaper than fossil fuels. For now...

There is a concern with future EV taxation/charges and the ever fragile electricity cost I suppose. It's starting to become more appealing as prices fall and electricity costs stabilise slightly. I like the idea of some of the high performance plugin hybrid SUVs like the Volvo XC90 T8 thing because we do about 90% of our journeys as short under 4 mile runs, multiple times a day. Shame they also cost £££££.
 
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