u/Malbekh

G'Day.

Back again now that I've got 3000km under the belt with some decent trips around Ireland and into the UK. Some of this is just on the Elroq and the rest is my experience in moving from a Octavia diesel vRS to an EV. Let's start with the car....

Bear in mind I drive commercially so my perspective will be different..

HUD I don't think is needed but probably because of what I do in the car. First of all the display is highly customisable on position, brightness and data. But if I use the standard white display or the 'snow' display which is in blue, I find myself ignoring it all the time. I would imagine if you were using it for Sat Nav it would be ideal, but I tend to use Waze on the phone attached to the windscreen and I can't see myself changing that.
The central display is completely customisable which is fantastic. So you can get rid of Laura and other stuff you don't need and put in what suits you best.
On the central display there is a circular icon where you can go from radio to iTunes or similar and that's a great shortcut.
The easy open boot has been disabled owing to it randomly opening whenever someone is around it (presumably with a key). This is a known issue supposedly solved in an update, maybe my one is ultra sensitive. In the Octavia you just had a foot waggle to open the boot that I much prefer.
Also with the boot it shuts kind of fast for my liking and would not like to try and see if the dog gets crushed.
The adjustable steering wheel is excellent but I can't find a comfortable anchor point for my arm against the door as it's sloped so you can't rest on it,and have your hand in the 3 o'clock steering wheel position for hours with no issues. Meaning I need to move from hand to hand on long journeys.
The blind spot indicator is recessed into the mirrors so only you and not any traffic can see them. That's a nice touch and they are pretty obvious and clear.
The lane assist is gentler than the Octavia but still gets switched off.
The speed limiter is not too intrusive but still gets switched off.
There are two tiny fly windows just past the mirrors that help orientate where you are when going around low speed bends in estates etc. Useful.
The dog has no problem getting into the boot as there's a plastic instep she uses to get a grip as she jumps in.
The speedo is out by -3km/h not a big issue but surprising and wonder if this has an effect on the car data.
At 50% battery usage I had completed 230km and the range I had left was 216km??

Now onto the 'new to EV part'

Most pleasant learning curve is on the regen. I love it. I'm used to engine/gear breaking in manuals so this is pretty much a better thing. I do wish it had one pedal regen (so comes to a complete stop) but R3 works fine for me and gives you great control on every single aspect of driving. I am told the brake lights come on depending on the deacceleration and would love to find out what the sweet point is.
Hills, or more accurately slopes are such a huge factor on your kWh/100km just looking at your economy take a massive hit. No surprise considering the weight of the car. The question is on the downslopes is, do you use the regen to get range back of just maximise the speed available....
I've been driving in coldish weather considering the time of the year. On my various trips I have found: Normal IE (123km/h) motorway driving 20.7kWh (376km). Economical UK motorway driving (60mph) 16.7kWh (433km) Economical IE driving (105 km/h) 17.8kWh (216km) I am assuming this will improve as the weather heats up but I will keep logs.
Lastly, as I drive commercially it makes no sense to drive economically if you are going to have range issues. For example, in the UK I drove from Holyhead to Manchester then on to Sunderland. I drove normally to Manchester (70mph) then when I started to drive to Sunderland had to reduce speed to 60mph and made it with 30km range. At 60mph it takes 3 hours to get to Sunderland so you lose 10mph x 3 hours = 30 minutes. You would be better off stopping for 15 minutes at a fast charger so you can go at a normal speed and have a bonus toilet and coffee break.
Similarly in IE driving at 104km/h rather than 124km/h means I can do a 440km round trip comfortably with one charge but lose 20km per hour and over the 4 hour trip that's 80km or 45 minutes. Again, with pre-conditioning I can get to 180kw/h charging so you should drive normally and just get a top-up when appropriate.
Obviously if it's your money you might have a differing persepctive
Lastly, I am going to go for 100% charging on the home charger all the time, mainly because the car is used every day so never stays at 100%. Highway chargers I will stick to 80%+ and just charge more frequently as the drop off rate from 80% is huge.

Happy to hear any comments, observations or criticisms from the community.

Hello all

vRS was delivered this day last week so thought I would give some viewpoints for anyone thinking of buying one or in the process of it being delivered. This unit was ordered in mid-November of last year and was expected in March. Delay therefore about 6 weeks.

This is an IE car so RHD + KM Added extras are Steel Grey + Tech Pack = HUD + sound system + 360 view etc.

Context: Last car was a diesel Octavia vRS so I can make a direct comparison. I usually drive estates and usually Skodas but have driven everything from vans to MPV's to sedans to estates and everything in between.

This is a company car and I do about 40k per year which is a lot less than before when I was doing 60k+ per year. I'm a sales manager and have been commercially driving for about 35 years so about 2m km of experience in IE and UK roads + FR/D/NL/ESP/I when required.

IE BIK reductions for EV's means that realistically, EV is the only choice. Plan on retirement is to bring this car with me, so this choice was critical and based on OMV cost (about €57k), matching what my colleagues have, and then residual decline and buy out cost in ~4 years.

Here are my initial comments.

The mirrors are huge. Like ginormous compared to the Octavia. Part of the challenge is getting used to the width of the car (1884mm vs 1829) but also the size of the mirrors. They are supposed to rotate downwards when reversing can't say I've noticed that but between the mirror sizes + the 360 + the height of the reversing camera there are no excuses.

It's very pretty from the front, especially with the tech/light deck. The vRS version makes this stand out and people do notice it as a differentiator from all the other SUV's around. The back looks like every other Skoda in the universe. People will be jelly about this, if you were looking for a reason to go for the vRS from a vanity POV this is it.

The boot is super small. I knew this but it's super small. The parcel shelf reinforces this and when you remove it for the medium size dog it's not that bad. But still 470L instead of the 600L in the Octavia. With the seats down it's 1580L compared to the 1555L of the Octavia but it's less because of usable space. I am pretty sure the size will compromise people with growing families and that's where the Enyaq comes to fore.

The rear ''spoiler'' and roof surround are made of cheap plastic and really are a negative to the car. Honestly Skoda need to up their game here, no excuses.

The coffee cup holders are as bad as advertised. Can't fit two side by side. In the Octavia they had two holders one after the other and there is a space for that in the car but used up with a useless compartment instead. Please use the Octavia version and use where the cupholders are to put the useless compartment instead.

Speaking of useless compartments the weird arch between the passenger and the driver has loads of useless space underneath it. I'm sure some of you have found a use for this but for me, it's like they did all the hard work in car design and then had all this space to finish off and gave it to an intern.

The car does not feel 2.2T. I have not driven enough to give a proper judgement yet that will take a few months but while it's not a drivers car in terms of feedback and feel it's not a horrible blob of metal to drive. The RWD helps enormously with this.

It's very fast coming from an ICE + autobox. I was told that the power output was adult and calibrated for mid speed acceleration. Maybe, but the take off from a standing start is astonishing as you get used to the ''always on'' power output. I knew this would be the case but until you actually drive an EV you'll never quite understand it.

The turning circle was advertised as best in class but it's a lot worse than the Octavia. There's a huge calibration in parking and manoeuvring in terms of change.

Steel grey works well for me I think the Timano green would be on par and both of these would be my preferential colours.

As others have pointed out, the Skoda app leaves much to be desired for initial connection and I spent a few days getting errors. The fix seems to be using you network option at 5G or at least a good 4G signal.

I'm using the Ionity network on top of the home charger and will see how I get on in the UK next week + France in June.

Anyways, those are initial thoughts and I hope to be in a position to answer any questions as well as the inevitable cries for help over the next few years.

Elroq vRS three weeks in observations