Skoda has launched a new van variant of its Enyaq electric SUV that trades its back seats for an expansive cargo area.
Developed with specialist Strongs Plastic Products, the conversion brings a flat plastic load bay with tethers and removable dividers for securing loose items, and a plastic bulkhead with a small window into the cockpit. The Enyaq Cargo’s rear windows are tinted black to hide anything stored inside from prying eyes.
The conversion costs £1815 plus VAT and is aimed at fleets. It is based on the Enyaq 85, which is priced from £44,310, inclusive of VAT and registration charges. The model packs a single rear-mounted 282bhp motor and a 77kWh battery, yielding a range of 359 miles. It can be recharged at up to 135kW, allowing a 10-80% refill in 28 minutes.
It can also be had in 85X form, which adds a motor up front for four-wheel drive. Its total power output is unchanged from 282bhp but its range is reduced to 332 miles. To compensate, its peak charge rate is boosted to 175kW.
Skoda has told Autocar that Enyaq Cargo does not qualify for the government’s plug-in van grant, which discounts the price of small electric vans by up to £2500.
The Enyaq Cargo was born out of a partnership with the National Grid, which has ordered 70 examples. National Grid Energy Distribution currently runs more than 300 electric vans and 600 electric company cars, according to Skoda.
The Enyaq Cargo will be offered exclusively to fleet buyers through area fleet managers in Skoda’s dealer network.
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Why would anyone buy this over a van? I'm only going by the above pics, but it looks like a home DIY conversion someone knocked up one afternoon. There's lots of space in there that isn't being utilised. Why have the rear door cards been carried over? Who's going to open those rear doors from the inside? Why have the exact same plastic mouldings in the rear been maintained - is a van going to use the retractable parcel shelf and fold down rear seat levers? And for the model in question, who's going to carry their van load on low profile tyres?
That van makes zero sense. That's not a rectangle rear aperture, the roof line is actually curved quite sharply towards the sides so you're limited in what you can fit in width wise. To me ( as a Kodiaq owner ), that van gains little or no more space than the passenger car with the rear seats folded, in fact I'm willing to bet that I could fit say a mountain bike more efficiently in the passenger version that I could in this van.
My first thought was perhaps the emergency services will favour it? Ambulance already converted some Mustang Mach-Es and EV6s into RRVs, basically filling the back with racks for equipment.
Whats the towing capacity of this Skoda? Maybe National Highways can use it for traffic officers since they're already trialling EVs such as the Model Y and Maxus pickups. They only take vehicles with large road presence which the Skoda certainly has, as long as it can tow.
Ive thought for a long time that Skoda should offer budget versions of VW vans again, theyd surely do well.
Didn't Land Rover do Discovery and Evoque for the trade?, it's a nice idea to convert a Van to look like an SUV.
But not such a nice idea to make your £55k Enyaq Sportline customers look like they're driving a van.