Skoda, who are a relatively new brand to the Irish market, now offer a huge range of petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid and fully electric models. I say relatively new, but the Czech manufacturer has been with us for 32 years now. Initially there were only 12 Irish dealers, and these dealers became affectionately known as the 12 apostles because they were the few believers!
Last week I got to drive a gorgeous, but fairly expensive, plug-in hybrid version of the Skoda Kodiaq. It came in a beautiful shade of blue, which impressed all my neighbours. Colour is so important when buying a new car and the Kodiaq blue version certainly caught a lot of people’s eye. The official colour was Race Blue Metallic.
Skoda designers seem to have a love for the letter ‘K’ and the Kodiaq which was introduced in 2016, sits above the Kamiq and Karoq in their impressive range. It’s based on the Volkswagen Group MQB platform which is shared with the similarly sized Volkswagen Tiguan and the Seat Tarraco.
This is fairly long motor, officially 4,758 millimetres and at first glance I thought it was a seven-seater. But there is no third row of seats because the large 19.7kWh battery takes up the space under the floor where a third row of seats would normally fold. Instead of a small third row of two small seats you get a massive boot instead.
Families are getting smaller and in reality, how many people have large enough families to fill a seven-seater?
Externally, this is a very impressive looking motor, with an attractive black grille and wrap-around lights at the rear and topped off with 20-inch Rila Aero alloys.
In most new cars, the infotainment screen dominates the dash, but in this instance, you get a neat ten-inch screen. You also get a few good old-fashioned rotary controls. It’s very spacious and the seats are fairly dark, but all the seats have a grey strip which helps brightens the décor. My test car had a full-length sunroof, which compensated for the dark seats.
We are told that plug-in hybrids are the best method for motorists to become familiar with the inevitable switch to electric cars. However, in Ireland, plug-ins are not great sellers and the latest SIMI figures for the first six months of the year show that PHEV’s have the smallest share of the new car market at 14.6%. Petrol is still king at over 27%, diesel is second with over 17% and full electric cars accounted for 16.6% of the new car market from January to June.
The Kodiaq claims a range of 115km in full electric mode and that’s fairly accurate. Most plug-in hybrids I have driven were a bit thirsty when in petrol mode, but this 1.5 litre was very frugal. The range with a full tank of petrol was over 700km and even in urban driving it wasn’t thirsty.
That boot is massive and as the battery prevents two extra seats, not surprisingly there is no room for a spare wheel. Prices for the new Kodiaq plug-in hybrid start at €53,640, while the fancy Sportline edition that I drove will cost you €58,400.
The Sportline edition included a plethora of extras, which would take another page to list. It’s up to you the buyer to decide how many goodies you want or can afford. But the simplest goody of all is standard in all Skoda’s, a clip to hold your parking ticket on the windscreen; the parking tickets you pay for, not the ones given by the traffic wardens. Road tax is €140.
And you will never leave you mobile phone behind in the charger in the car when exiting. If you do exit without taking your phone, you will get an automatic voice message telling you not to forget the phone.
As I said at the start of this review it’s gorgeous and I really liked it.
