Styling
The Superb iV doesn't look appreciably different to any other model in the Estate range, which is both good - overall, it's an elegantly styled and handsome thing - and, er, not so good (the rear view is a little anonymous and reminiscent of the now-deceased
Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer), and really the only visual differences are the charging flap for the electric portion of its drivetrain on the Skoda's front wing, as well as a discreet 'iV' badge on the bootlid. On our top-spec Laurin & Klement (L&K) model, there's also an attractive set of 'Belatrix' turbine-style aerodynamically optimised 18-inch alloys, but these sap the overall claimed electric range of the iV from 84 miles on the base SE Technology spec to 79 miles here - if that sort of thing matters to you. Oh, and the sumptuous colour of our test car is £660 Cobalt Blue, the only cost option on this particular L&K; everything else on it is standard-fit.
Interior
As above, so below. Or, avoiding Parisian horror film references (or, indeed, badly paraphrasing the
Emerald Tablet), as outside, so within. You won't discern much of difference to sitting in the Superb Estate iV than you would in an eTSI or TDI model, which is a huge bonus. This is a beautiful cabin, with lovely materials and sensible ergonomics, and the addition of a few extra hybrid-related controls and displays in the twin main digital screens of its dash doesn't change that at all. We're no longer even bothered by the way the rectangular 10.25-inch Virtual Cockpit instrument cluster is housed beneath a curved cowl (in fact, we forgot all about it while driving the car and had to refer back to images to check it was still as clunky-looking as it was during our first drive of this generation of Superb), while the Smart Dials proved themselves to be exactly that - smart - during 1,200 miles of operation. So the unstinting quality and cool, restrained design of the Superb's cabin is possibly one of the main reasons you'd buy one.
Practicality
Passenger compartment space and some of Skoda's highly useful 'Simply Clever' touches/solutions are things you have in complete abundance in any fourth-gen Superb Estate, and the iV is no exception to this rule. The sacrifice, such as it is, comes in the usual zone on a PHEV, which pertains to boot space. While the eTSI and TDI models have enormous 690-litre caverns tacked onto the back of them, rising to 1,920 litres if you fold their rear seats down, the equivalent stats on the iV are savaged by 180 and 150 litres accordingly courtesy of the new, larger battery, meaning you have (on paper, at least) less impressive data of 510 and 1,770 litres respectively. However, few sane people would look at the PHEV Superb wagon's boot and then opine 'cor, it's a bit cramped in there', so we're prepared to forgive the Skoda for this decrease in outright cargo capacity for the benefits the bigger power pack brings elsewhere.
Performance
The old Skoda Superb iV had a 1.4-litre engine and an 85kW (116hp) electric motor, combining to deliver 218hp and 400Nm overall. This new one has the later 150hp/250Nm 1.5-litre TSI engine that is used elsewhere in the latest Superb line-up and the same e-motor, but the peak outputs are cited as 204hp and 350Nm. Like the previous iV, this one is front-wheel drive and has a six-speed, not seven, DSG transmission, while - and this time,
unlike the previous iV - it is sold as an Estate only in the UK. You can expect 0-62mph in 8.1 seconds and a theoretical top speed of 136mph, but it can travel at more than 80mph on electric power alone.
The big change is the fitment of that 25.7kWh battery pack, 19.7kWh of which is usable; the old car had a piffling 13kWh unit. It means the iV's range more than doubles, from 35 miles previously to a maximum of 84 miles this time around, while the published eco-stats make for eye-popping reading: CO
2 is pegged at just 9g/km, while the official WLTP fuel economy is a faintly ludicrous 680.4- to 735.7mpg.
As with any PHEV on sale, we sound the usual cautionary tale that owners will very, very rarely get 700mpg and more out of the car, unless they're charging it almost quasi-religiously every night, and the 'depleted battery' figures of 50.8-51.8mpg and 124-127g/km of CO
2 are much more reasonable. However, we had to drive the Superb iV from Milan back to the UK across just two days, a trip of more than 960 miles, and we ultimately did in excess of 1,200 miles in the car before it was collected by Skoda UK's representatives.
And there's little doubt it's the best PHEV we've ever experienced. The larger battery might still not give you the claimed 79 miles of this L&K model when it's fully charged, but from our experience (two charges at hotels on the trip) it will definitely do 50-60 miles in zero-emission mode easily, even if you're not driving the car particularly carefully, the climate conditions are against you and you're using lots of onboard electrical drains while you're at it.
This, in turn, genuinely makes the Superb PHEV more economical than the diesel model in most realistic use-case scenarios now, because if you even drive 150 miles in one hit in it, a huge proportion of that will be spent travelling on electric power and you'll get a three-figure mileage from it without difficulty; we saw 154mpg while at the foot of the Alps, after crawling out of a sodden Milan and then cruising at 120km/h on Italian motorways for extended periods of time. As PHEVs go, that's a fantastic return.
It's also a great drivetrain, full stop. The 1.5, as it does in many other applications in the Volkswagen Group (hybrid or otherwise), can become a little too vocal beyond 4,000rpm, but there's always assistance from the e-motor - even with the battery showing '0%' on the display - so that the iV feels suitably torquey and rapid. The six-speed DSG is ultra-slick, only fluffing one shift (that we can remember) in 1,200 miles of driving... and that was when we planted the throttle just as the engine was coming online to help the electric motor. Finally, despite the fact we only charged it twice in the huge mileage we did in the Superb iV, it managed to return a deeply creditable average economy of 50.8mpg by the end of our time with it.
And you will charge it more regularly than you would a normal PHEV, because it has a CCS Combo 2 connection behind that front-wing charging port, which means it can rejuice its battery at 50kW DC. That means you can go from 10-80 per cent capacity in 26 minutes at its fastest, while an 11kW AC will do the job in 2.5 hours. Basically, what we're saying is that we deliberately stress-tested this iV by denying it more than two charges of its battery in 1,200 miles, and yet it still refused to dip below 50mpg. We reckon even only semi-regular charging, and a driving pattern that doesn't involve 600 miles of 80mph cruising plus thousands of metres of ascent up Alpine passes in cold weather, would often see this Superb achieving close to - if not more than - 100mpg. That, in our eyes, makes this the best drivetrain option in the Skoda's line-up right now.
Ride & Handling
Like a regular Superb Estate, the iV isn't particularly thrilling in the corners - there are far more involving cars to batter up and down the Furka Pass in, for instance - but, by the same token, it is a long, long way from being bad. The steering and body control are both above average, and there's nice balance and grip to the comfort-oriented chassis that means you can hustle the Skoda PHEV along at a decent pace on a challenging road, without the car becoming all ragged and wallowy.
It also doesn't feel encumbered by the additional weight of the hybrid gear, because this L&K has a printed kerb weight of anything between 1.85 and nigh-on two tonnes, but it never feels anything like as bulky as that. This is especially true of the regenerative brakes - aside from odd occasions when hastily trying to stop for a junction in slimy conditions, the car's stoppers bite strong and true, and they do a good job of replenishing up to ten miles of electric-driving range if you happen to find yourself descending off the Grimsel Pass. For some reason.
Of course, the Superb's forte remains its impeccable ride comfort and refinement, and the iV L&K is fitted with 15-setting Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) adjustable suspension as standard. We found the best option for the car, though, was to simply use the central Smart Dial to call up the 'Comfort' setting (denoted by a little cloud icon in both the dial itself and on the Virtual Cockpit too). In it, the ride quality is, as we've said before, like a good football referee: it's so efficient and talented at doing its job that you
simply don't notice the ride quality at all. You cover thousands of miles and you get out at the far end, realising you're feeling refreshed and thinking to yourself that road surfaces seem to have improved immeasurably these days. Yes, even craggy UK ones.
Suppression of tyre, engine and wind noise is also magnificent in the iV, so in general it feels every bit as edifying and luxurious to travel in as an eTSI or TDI Superb, which is why the PHEV is now the Czech weapon of choice in our eyes. There are simply no compromises to be made, aside from the marginally reduced boot space and added purchase price (see below), in opting for the Superb iV.
Value
With our test car coming in at £49,200, the Skoda Superb iV Estate L&K is not the cheapest way into PHEV ownership. In its defence, apart from its metallic paint then everything on our car - including heated, cooled and massaging front seats, the Suite Black leather upholstery, a Canton upmarket sound system, and heating elements for all of the two-spoke leather steering wheel, the rear seats, the front windscreen and the washer nozzles, as well as a 360-degree camera, among more - comes included for the price. There are obviously also the inherent beneficial tax implications the low-CO
2 output of the Superb iV will bring, so running costs should be significantly reduced, and if you want a more affordable model then the still-well-equipped SE Technology iV Estate is less than £42,000. Frankly, for the incredibly all-round-talented machine you're getting, we don't think £49,000 is too much in the slightest...
Verdict
While it might not be quite as powerful as its 1.4-litre predecessor, the new Skoda Superb iV PHEV feels like a much neater and more seamless integration of plug-in-hybrid running gear than it did in the old car. The larger battery has also made clear and valuable improvements to the real-world economy and zero-emissions range of the big Czech wagon, and so we have no qualms whatsoever in giving the latest Superb iV Estate full marks. It does everything you could possibly want of it supremely well, and precious little wrong at all. Utterly tremendous.
