Factors affecting EV battery range

Essentially there are three ways to charge your electric vehicle:

• via a 3-pin household wall socket, which is slow but available widely;

• via a wallbox which can be installed at your home if you have e.g. suitable off-street parking available and is substantially faster and more practical than a 3-pin plug ; and

• via public or on the road charging points, which can be the fastest way to charge, especially where rapid or ultra rapid options are available. Availability of public charging is increasing all the time.

For more information on charging, visit our dedicated page here.

Use our charging calculator to find out how fast the Enyaq can be charged and compare home and public charging times.

Typically, Electric Vehicle drivers would charge their car to between 20% and 80%. Like a mobile phone, charging is quickest the first 20% and once it passes 80% it slows to protect the battery’s longevity. You can of course charge it to 100% ahead of longer journeys but it is not recommended to leave the car at 100% charge for long periods. 

The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 require batteries to be taken back free of charge on request. Škoda UK aim to make sure that high-voltage batteries are disposed of properly. Contact your local Škoda retailer for further information.

Standard extension cables cannot cope with the continuous high power draw required to charge an electric vehicle. If you are unable to find a suitable place to charge at home, there are an ever increasing amount of convenient public charging options including street chargers (e.g. in lamp posts), destination chargers (e.g. at supermarkets, cinemas or shopping centres), or workplace chargers which can make charging away from home quick and easy. 

Yes. The vehicle is designed to be safe whilst charging on rainy days. However, the plugs and sockets are not designed to be immersed in water. 

Like most lithium-ion batteries we use every day, such as in our smartphones, the capacity of batteries in electric vehicles will reduce over time through use and charging. This is important to keep in mind when comparing new and used electric vehicles on our website, as the capacity of a used battery will be lower than the capacity of a new battery.

The reduction of battery capacity through use, charging and time is called ‘degradation’.  For battery electric cars, degradation is affected by many variables such as charging speed, driving style, charging volume, temperature etc. As a battery ages the capacity will reduce, which means that the battery may need to be charged more frequently and the range achievable in real life may decrease.

You should not rely on new car performance figures (including battery capacity and range) in relation to used vehicles with older batteries, as they will not reflect used vehicle performance in the real world.

Yes – see previous question for charging options. The easiest and quickest way to charge at home is via a wallbox. We have a partnership with award-winning supplier of easy-to-use home chargers, Ohme. Not only do they make the installation and set-up as easy as possible, they also offer low-cost charging options via integration with smart EV energy tariffs (eg. OVO Charge Anytime). You will need to have off-street parking available and permission from the landlord if you rent your property as well as an initial assessment arranged by Ohme to check if you are a standard or non-standard installation.

As a Škoda customer, you may be eligible for a free home charger as part of the vehicle finance package (UK retail customers 18+, subject to suitable location for standard installation); if not, costs start at a preferential rate for Škoda customers of £925, or £975 including standard installation for the most popular tethered Ohme Home Pro, plus you’ll get all the advice you need – click here to find out more.

Even if you have a home charger fitted, there may be times when you need to charge on-the-go and so it’s good to know public charging has come a long way over the past few years, and continues to improve.

Rapid chargers (with direct current or DC and speeds from 23 kW) and Ultra rapid (from 100 kW) are generally found on major routes and are essentially the petrol stations of the electric world. All electric cars have a maximum charging speed, and all rapid chargers have a maximum output (both are measured in kilowatts (kW)), so try to find a charger which maximises your car’s charging capacity. 

If you have a 60 kWh battery, it could take as little as 30 minutes to charge from empty to full at a 150 kW rapid charger (providing the charger is performing at that rate). At a 22 kW chargepoint, it could take around 3 hours. These are indicative minimum charge times for comparison only. They may not reflect real world experience.

And don’t forget that ‘filling’ to 80% is not only quicker (the last 20% is designed to fill much more slowly) but is also better for your battery. You can set 80% as the maximum charging level via the car or the app.

While many Škoda EVs have been designed with bi-directional technology, the interfaces and wallboxes are not currently available to enable this. Instead, we’re focusing at the moment on intelligent charging functionality which maximises energy usage while minimising costs.

Bi-directional charging essentially allows you to use your car’s battery as a power source. This could be ‘Vehicle to Load’ that allows you to use the car’s battery to charge devices, such as a scooter or e-bike; ‘Vehicle to Home’ that allows you to transfer energy back into your house from your vehicle, utilising dynamic energy tariffs to draw on stored electricity during peak periods; or ‘Vehicle to Grid’ that enables the transfer of electricity back from your EV into the grid.