Skoda Enyaq vs Tesla Model 3

What's the difference?

Skoda’s runaway sales success in Europe makes sense, where there’s a broad range including a pragmatic family-friendly wagon version. In Australia, though, the pre-facelift Enyaq is destined to remain a niche proposition. 

This is absolutely no bad thing. Judging by the number of double takes and gawks the Mamba Green RS got over its tenure, having too many on the roads could be a danger. It gets all the main ingredients right with solid efficiency, good packaging and there-or-thereabouts pricing. 

The Skoda Enyaq is an electric car to consider if you appreciate practical touches and delight in the well-calibrated driving experience Skoda offers. Those who appreciate the out-there styling and bright colours will find the appeal obvious.

The Model 3 Performance is one of those cars that’s undeniably impressive in almost every way, and hugely fast in absolutely every way, and yet can somehow still leave you feeling slightly cold. Or at least damp with fear sweat.

It’s not my kind of sports car, but if you love speed, and EVs, and Tesla, you’re gong to think it’s the Queen Bee’s knees.

Publishers: Please place the following in BOLD after the verdict:

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

Being divisive in this day and age is important, especially in this segment. While Tesla design was briefly a symbol of change, the Model 3 and Y have rapidly become anonymous blobs that amble down every main arterial. The Mamba Green Enyaq RS coupe is an antidote.

Sure, it’s a little awkward and tall from behind (channelling a bit of first-gen BMW X6 in its overall form) yet the low roofline, huge 21-inch alloy wheels, crisp swage lines and tall bonnet give the Enyaq’s shape interest. 

The proportions are about right with a long wheelbase (2766mm) compared to the Enyaq's overall 4653mm length giving it a wheel-in-each-corner stance. Height is just 1618mm, not much taller than a sedan, and width is 1879mm. 

Individual details, such as the glowing crystal grille (a bit like a Hollywood actor's teeth) proved divisive, yet when everything else is so strong — including the colour — the Enyaq is strangely resolved. Power plus power works, in this case.

Jumping inside there’s a reassuring calm after that searing paint (other shades are available, but why would you?) Not quite austere, the Enyaq’s cabin majors on black leather and nicely grained plastic.

A flourish of faux carbon fibre and twist of chrome on the door handles combine with customisable ambient lighting to lift cabin ambience. 

The Enyaq isn’t all perfect with some materials, especially below the belt line, feeling cheaper than you'd expect for $83K. Creaks and groans from plastic parts in the centre console and dashboard could be heard while driving, too.

Tesla’s design folks waxed long and loud about how they’d finally been able to visually lift and separate this Performance Model 3 from the basic one and they point to the new front and rear fascias, more aggressive styling, aerodynamic flicks, integrated cooling ducts, rear diffuser and carbon-fibre spoiler, which are there not only to look good, but to to “optimise lift balance and high-speed stability”.

Now, I’ll grant you it’s better than a normal Model 3, and that we were regularly approached by excited Tesla fans asking “is this the NEW PERFORMANCE OH MY GOD I WANT ONE NOW?!?"

But honestly, I still think it’s a bit subtle, and that includes the strange little 'Performance' sticker/badge on the rear, which does look a lot like the Ludicrous symbol that Elon loves, from the awful movie Spaceballs, but Tesla staff insist it’s not, nor is it Plaid. 

Clearly, the design tweaks are there for a reason, and train spotters will note the differences immediately, but it’s still just not the most exciting car to look at, nor is it anywhere near as exciting to behold as it is to drive.

There’s a more practical wagon-bodied version offered in Europe, contributing to the Enyaq’s success as a family car but the Enyaq coupe still bursts with smart storage.

In fact, it’s fairer to think of this Enyaq RS as more of a raised sedan, a slightly taller-riding electric version of the Skoda Superb, rather than a 'coupe'. 

The Skoda Enyaq has a huge 570-litre boot that puts it at the pointy end of the class (Tesla’s 854L Model Y claim is fanciful, including underfloor storage and counting all the way to the roof). 

Plus, being a Skoda, the Enyaq ships with 'Simply Clever' touches like four shopping bag hooks, four tie-down points, extensive cargo net system, two amazingly useful Velcro boot dividers and segmented underfloor storage for supplied Mode 2 and 3 charging cables. There’s even a hook on the parcel shelf to hold the false floor up. The only miss is a lack of spare wheel. 

The backrest folds flat in a 60/40 split and this can be done from the back seat with remote levers. There’s also a ski-port pass-through that doubles as an armrest in the back seats.

Accommodation in the rear is great, even for those about six foot. I was comfortable sitting behind my driving position at 188cm, with good knee room, toe space and headroom. 

Amenity includes a separate climate zone, two USB-C chargers, nifty pull-up and clip-in rear sunshades, a removable centre box (so you can have a fully flat floor) and two cupholders in the armrest. Materials are mostly hard, though there is a squishy armrest on the door card. 

The only negative in the back — especially apparent in harsh Australian summers — is the heat radiating from the standard glass roof. There is a manually-installable sunshade available from Skoda. 

The Skoda Enyaq has ISOFIX anchors on both outboard rear seats and the same number of top tether anchors. The top tethers are easy to access with no covers to get in the way. 

It has doors that open quite wide, but not quite to 90 degrees, and the low roof means door apertures are a little awkward. Also, because the door cladding comes all the way down and the car is functionally quite low, care is required around tall kerbs.

You’ll notice in the front door card that Skoda’s signature umbrellas are nestled into the hole the armrest leaves, which is a great touch. 

The bucket seats are 10-way power adjustable with two-position memory and heating. It is easy to get comfortable with the reach and height adjustable steering wheel falling perfectly to the hands, being especially accommodating for taller drivers. 

Practical touches include felt-lined door bins, a storage cubby beneath the centre console and shift-by-wire gear selector, half-width glove box, multi-tiered storage below an adjustable centre armrest, adjustable size cupholders and plenty of odds and ends storage.

Technology is straightforward and runs through a responsive 13.0-inch touchscreen. Skoda’s software is fine but most will end up using the consistent wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in the Enyaq. 

Thankfully, doing so doesn’t hamper the screen’s shortcut buttons. At the bottom there’s still quick temperature adjustment and heated seat controls, shortcuts to the home screen, further climate, phone, media menus and more. 

Skoda has kept a few clips of physical buttons, too, some below the screen shortcut to the drive assist, drive modes, park assist, hazard lights, climate control and demisters, while headlights are down and to the right of the steering wheel. Simple stuff, but not to be taken for granted anymore.

Inside, the big news is the new seats. Tesla was happy to admit the pews fitted to the previous Performance just weren’t up to the job of holding humans in place when applying so much G force. 

The new 'Sport Seats' feature enhanced side cushioning and side bolsters for better lateral support during dynamic driving. And they can also be heated and ventilated. 

Elsewhere, there’s some carbon-fibre trim on top of the dash, with a Tesla-first weave pattern to further help the Performance stand out within the Model 3 line-up.

Other than that, it’s pretty standard Tesla sedan, which will be familiar if you’ve ever caught an Uber in Los Angeles. Spartan, minimalist, slightly cheap-feeling.

As for the practicality of the tech, I'm still against the giant 15-inch tablet-style touchscreen, for everything, the replacement of an indicator stalk with buttons and not having a speedo right in front of your eyes, where you need it.

Tesla says the price for the Model 3 Performance will be "starting at" $80,900, plus on-road costs. There's no word on whether there will be different spec levels and the company does not like answering questions or providing information.

What we also know about Tesla is that the price quoted could move down, or up, at any time, quite randomly, so if phrases like "residual value" or "depreciation" are of interest to you, it can be a challenging brand.

That side swipe aside, this sounds like astonishingly good value for this much performance from your Model 3 Performance. A Hyundai Ioniq 5 N would give it run for fun and involvement, if not brand fans, but it's $111,000, while a Porsche Taycan kicks off at $164,000 (it is a lot more car for the money, but it might struggle to keep up with this Tesla, at least in base model form).

In terms of equipment, it's pretty much standard Model 3 fare, other than the fast bits and a spot of carbon here and there.

You get 'Autopilot' included, of course, but you can't use all of its 'Full Self Driving functionality' on Australian roads. Not yet, anyway.

You won’t find any ‘frunk’ in the Skoda, which is a bit of a shame. Instead, the Volkswagen Group 'MEB' platform supports the Enyaq RS’s twin electric motor set-up, with a 210kW and 545Nm item on the rear axle and 134Nm on the front that only activates when needed. 

The result is a combined 250kW and 545Nm. Acceleration is brisk, amped by a sharp throttle calibration. Skoda claims a 0-100km/h time of 5.4 seconds and it continues to be punchy beyond there. The Enyaq’s top speed is electronically limited to 180km/h.

That would have been considered plenty five years ago, yet rivals like the Tesla Model Y Performance mean the Enyaq’s punch is far from mind-blowing by today’s standards. Ultimately, the 210kW rear-drive Enyaq Sportline is all most will need.

If you’ve ever driven the previous Model 3 Performance you’ll know that it could well have come with Space X badging (arguably Elon’s more impressive engineering achievement), because it really did thrust rather than accelerate.

But this time the engineers wanted to go all out. Customers appreciated the incremental performance they got from the last Model 3 Performance version, but they told Tesla they wanted more.

With many enthusiasts among Tesla's engineering and development team, they looked to unlock the performance potential of the platform.

So, that meant a whole lot more madness and torque thump. It comes from a new Performance 4DU, an all-new drive unit - featuring an entirely new rear motor that uses bar-winding technology - unlocking 22 per cent more continuous power, 32 per cent more peak power and 16 per cent higher peak torque delivery. 

Overall figures are 380kW and 740Nm, but looking at them written down, they seem big, yet not as big as they feel in this car, as it’s shoving you from a standing start to 100km/h in three seconds flat. 

It feels faster. Sick-making fast, even.

In more potent RS guise, the Enyaq’s range suffers a little, at 530km (WLTP) with vehicle energy consumption listed at 14.5kWh/100km. 

That is a reasonable range and it wasn’t too hard to achieve similar figures. Even running the air conditioning on a 30-plus degree summer's day the trip computer recorded a best figure of 15.1kWh/100km over a 250km mix of urban and rural driving, for a real-world driving range of 510km. 

Over 1800km of total driving, the cumulative total was 16.4kWh/100km, giving an average of 470km from a charge.

The Skoda Enyaq’s fast charge speed is mid-pack, capped to 175kW DC. With a powerful enough pylon, you’ll be able to jump from 10-80 per cent charge in less than 30 minutes, says Skoda. We observed close to peak speed during our test. 

Home and slow-speed public charging maxes out at 11kW AC, which should take the Enyaq from flat to full in around eight hours. 

Skoda has a smartphone app that can connect to the Enyaq and give real-time information about charge status in Europe, but it is not yet online in Australia.

Instead, you can set a charge limit and monitor the vehicle’s progress on the centre screen. It is also possible to pre-program climate control functions for specific times to either warm or cool the Enyaq's cabin.

Despite being heavier and gruntier, Tesla claims the new Performance Model 3 manages to be more efficient than the one it replaces, albeit delivering just a two per cent reduction in energy consumption. Claimed energy usage is 16.7 kWh/100km.

Tesla claims a total range of 528km on the WLTP, which is obviously going to drop if you drive it the way its makers clearly intended.

Using a Tesla Supercharger, you can add 228km in 15 minutes and... that's all Tesla will tell us. There are no official figures available for how long a full charge takes, on either a Tesla charge or a home wallbox of your own.

Initial touch points are pure Skoda: sharp, direct steering, a supple yet supportive ride and balanced control weighting. 

You will feel totally at home getting into an Enyaq out of an Octavia, Superb or Kodiaq and this is deliberate. There is no recalibrating to ultra sharp steering, one-pedal driving or strange adaptive driver aids you notice getting into a Tesla or other electric car. 

The Enyaq RS can be a little abrupt over bumps at low speeds, owing to its large 21-inch alloy wheels. There is some knocking from the front suspension as well. It is best to set the drive mode to 'Comfort' around town, softening the adaptive dampers and accelerator response.

When you go out into the countryside, the Enyaq delivers with fantastic body control in its middle Normal drive mode while bump absorption remains excellent. 

Skoda has done a great job insulating the car, the Enyaq is seriously quiet on coarse chip surfaces and slices through the wind at motorway speeds. It is effortless to travel long distances behind the wheel.

When you ask a little more of the chassis on give-and-take roads, though, the Enyaq RS doesn't quite step up to the plate. 

Putting the 15-stage adaptive dampers in 'Sport' mode makes them too firm, without natural body roll. This puts a lot of load through the tyres, which are Bridgestone Turanza Eco items — great for sound and range, not for grip. 

The rubber is staggered, too, with narrower front (235/45 R21) compared to rear (255/40R21) promoting understeer at the limit. A high kerb weight of 2290kg doesn’t help, either, but seems to be a common theme with vehicles based on the VW Group MEB platform. 

It took a bit of getting used to the Enyaq’s brake pedal, too, which is clumsy at blending the regenerative braking at the top of the travel with hydraulic further down. A firmer, more consistent pedal would make for smoother driving.

That said, having paddle-operated four-stage regenerative braking is welcome and, overall, there’s a charm to the way the Enyaq drives. It feels slick and well-oiled in a way many other electric cars feel overly heavy on technology.

Very occasionally, one drives a car that makes the human body feel inadequate to the task. I would have worried that I’m getting old, that my body is simply too flubby and my brain too broken, to cope with the kind of wild acceleration and brutal g-forces the Model 3 Performance delivers.

But, fortunately, I had a videographer in the passenger seat, a much younger man who loves fast cars, and he kept threatening to vomit when I drove it hard, too. 

I’ve driven quite a few cars that you can use make your passenger sick, or hurt their necks - one obvious competitor in the shape of a Porsche Taycan Turbo S comes to mind - but it’s very rare that a vehicle is so intense it can make you, the driver, feel bilious.

Yes, you do bring this on yourself, by choosing to push this Performance anywhere near its limits through particularly sharp and intestine-shaped roads like the canyons outside Malibu Tesla chose to launch it on. 

On longer, sweeping bends it was far more of a joy, and less physically punishing, but in the tight stuff it often felt like corners were being thrown at you, as if you were driving behind the Millennium Falcon and being pulled along in its wake.

The brakes, special new sporting ones with track-ready pads, were up to the task, even though it often felt like they couldn’t possibly pull you up from the speeds you were doing.

And yes, it was entirely my fault that the very first time I even gently prodded the throttle and it launched me ahead past a California Highway Patrol officer, that was my fault too. Three minutes into the drive, holding an American fine, I had already deduced that perhaps this car was too fast for my own good.

But lots of EVs are fast in a straight line, you’re really comparing the length and depth of your “oooophhh” sounds at this point, but where this one succeeds is by being a lot better in the handling and ride and cornering departments than most.

Tesla’s stated goal with this car was to move beyond straight-line speed, to become more than a one-trick pony, and to do that it’s given the Performance a stiffer structure overall and updated the springs and stabiliser bars. 

Aerodynamic changes have reduced drag by five per cent, delivered a 36 per cent lift reduction, and a 55 per cent improvement in front-to-rear lift balance.

Tesla’s own, in-house version of adaptive dampers, not an option but included in every Performance, work with the car’s 'Vehicle Dynamics Controller' through its various modes - 'Insane' and 'Track' being the most… ludicrous - to immediately respond to driver inputs. 

The Performance rides well on LA’s awful concrete freeways but feels absolutely nailed down when you attack even a bumpy driver’s road.

This version also has a lot more power going to the rear wheels, to help it feel more sports-car playful and to fire out of bends the way an enthusiast’s car should. And make no mistake, I met them, the people behind this car are serious driving enthusiasts (although they demur, slightly, on whether their boss is one).

Track mode will allow some serious adjustability, drifting ability and fun, so the kind of people who want to hurl around a racing circuit in silence will love it.

Perhaps the only let downs are that it still feels a bit austere inside, just not very special, and that the steering is just a bit digital, soft and uninvolving, compared to the cars they clearly benchmarked against - BMWs and Porsches. 

Tesla provided no information about safety for the Performance Model but it is assumed it will be unchanged from a standard Model 3.

Aside from Autopilot that means auto emergency braking, lane keep aids, and instead of blind-spot monitoring, it gets the surround radar view and blind-spot cameras when you indicate.

The latest Model 3 has an additional centre airbag for a total of seven, as well as additional bolstering where the doors meet the body in response to requirements in its American home market.

It should be able to carry its maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, which the original version achieved in 2019.

Skoda’s seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty applies to the Enyaq as it does to all of its models. 

The guarantee is right up there with the best and is a long way ahead of Tesla’s short three-year warranty. 

Servicing is due once every two years or 30,000km and owners can pre-purchase eight- or 10-year service packs, the former costing $1650.

Again, we've been asked to assume the Performance will come with Tesla's standard four-year/80,000km warranty and roadside assistance. And that the battery and drive unit will fall under an eight-year/192,000km warranty, whichever comes first.

Tesla says it monitors its cars to ascertain when they need servicing, and so it is based on a case-by-case situation. Every 12 months/20,000km is recommended for a general check-up, and includes tyre rotation.

Wiper blades, brake fluid and cabin air filters need replacement every two years while the air-con service is every six years.

Of course, there are no oil changes, filters or spark plugs to replace, and even brake pad wear is less than on an ICE vehicle because of the regenerative braking system. Although it will likely be higher in the Performance variant.