- This topic has 17 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 4 months ago by
.
- Topic
Recently took possession of my first motability vehicle, a Skoda Kodiaq PHEV. Two weeks into ownership of this car, a couple of issues have cropped up. I am interested if anyone else has experience of these issues, but more importantly, I am keen to share these experiences as it may help others if they encounter similar issues when choosing a new Skoda Kodiaq PHEV, and hopefully save them a bit of time and money.
On day one of getting the car, I had a call from the dealer that evening advising a new update was available and I needed to book my vehicle in for this to happen. I was surprised about this as my previous car, a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV never needed an update like this. I am guessing these things happened when it went in for service etc. Anyway, a date was agreed in the new year, and I was advised it should take no longer than one hour to complete an update. More on this one later..
Main concern is the battery issue I have now experienced. Initially, the car charged perfectly on my existing dedicated wall charger which has performed faultlessly over the last 9 years charging the Mitsubishi. The overall mpg was creeping up, reaching an average of 130 mpg and rising. All very exciting.
One week into ownership, plugged the car in as normal, and the electrics started tripping on the consumer units in my garage and the house. Wall charger examined by qualified electrician who advised it was working perfectly. 13amp charger ordered, also tripped the sockets. Went to a public charger, and immediately failed.
Vehicle now back with the dealer who advises of no known issues for the battery on these vehicle types at this time. A check of the app since I got home shows several “charging has stopped, issue with the onboard charger” messages since it has been back at the Skoda dealership in their workshop.
On the issue of vehicle updates, they decided to do this today, but this was not straightforward. Was advised that the download was taking longer than expected, and could be a 6 or 7 hour process. My main thoughts about this is, how many of these updates are likely to be needed throughout the year, factoring in travel time, an hour there, an hour back, possibly having to leave the car with them overnight for the updates to complete etc..Skoda were unable to answer this one.
So my advice would be to query this if you receive software update calls, and agree a date when they have a courtesy car available if needed. I was initially told there was not one available for today’s visit to Skoda, which would mean using the Motability taxi scheme for the first time. Thankfully, one became available, and I am now using this until the problem with the PHEV battery is solved.
Hopefully, fingers crossed, the battery issue will be sorted soon as I really love this car. Hope this helps other Kodiaq PHEV users. I will keep you posted on my journey with the new PHEV.
Ade
- Replies
Hi Ade
thanks very much for sharing, this is very interesting and I’m picking up our new Kodiaq PHEV tomorrow so I’ll be asking the dealer today about this update. I hope the charging issues are resolved soon and I’ll post here if I face similar. Glad to hear that overall you’re enjoying the car.
All the best
Christos
@Ade Nice looking car the new Kodiak and one of the few decent sized cars remaining on the scheme. I’m sure you’ll be very happy with it once these initial issues are sorted.
I’d have been extremely irritated about the software update issue as this should have been picked up during the PDI (pre delivery inspection) and updated prior to you taking delivery. A bit of a dropped ball on behalf of the dealership I think.
One of our regular contributors @kezo is an electrician and may be able to help with your electrics query. He was very helpful when I had electrical problems. Unfortunately, his father is extremely ill at present so he may not be able to help just at the moment.
Finally, as it’s your first Motability car and therefore probably your first PHEV, it’s worth knowing that the mpg as stated on the cars computer is a farce and bears no resemblance to reality. This is the case with all PHEVs as the computer takes no account of the cost of charging the car and calculates mpg as though all of the miles that you do under electric power are free, which is clearly not the case. It took me a while to work out how to calculate mpg equivalent accurately on my PHEV, but once I’d finally sussed it I was pleased to see that the highly respected motoring journalist ‘Harrys Garage’ uses the same method. If it helps, this is what you do;
I keep a small notebook in the car. I keep a log of the cost of every charge that I make between each petrol refuel. I don’t have a cheap electric rate so charging my PHEV from 15% (the default level with zero EV range left) to 100% costs me £2.60. It may be a lot less in your case. Once I’ve filled up with petrol, I add to the petrol cost the cumulative cost of all charges that I’ve made since I last filled up with petrol. I then divide this total cost (petrol plus all charges) by the number of miles driven since the last refuel to get a pence per mile figure. Finally, using the current cost per gallon of petrol (£6 where I live – £1.319 per litre x 4.546 to get the price of a gallon), I divide the price of a gallon by the total pence per mile and that gives me an accurate mpg equivalent to an ICE car. My car is usually showing around 80 mpg on the in car computer but, in reality, this is really around 48 mpg once charging costs are included as above. The ‘gap’ will vary hugely though depending on what proportion of your mileage is done on electric power versus petrol. If I do a journey that is 100% electric the computer shows around 999 mpg but, in truth, it’s about 80 mpg equivalent. If I do a journey that is 100% on petrol (with a depleted battery) it’s more like 32 mpg. Hope that helps as the fuel computer in the car will never be even remotely accurate unless you never ever charge the car, which defeats the whole point of getting one!
An update as promised for my Skoda Kodiaq problem, again hope you find this post helpful. Last Friday, received a call from Skoda saying the update was successful, but the PHEV battery issue was still being looked into. Obviously nothing Saturday or Sunday. Monday, Skoda app showed vehicle possibly being worked on, bonnet and windows open, and battery charging failures. No call from Skoda to update me. So I phoned them this morning (Tuesday). Advised they have had unexpected issues with their chargers. They have located another charger to use, and will call me back later to update. No call received. Periodically checked Skoda app throughout the day, no signs of vehicle being opened. No charging failure warnings. Tomorrow will be the 7th day my car has been back with them. Contacted motability. They advise that I ask Skoda to contact them to start the process of a Europe car hire if problem persists and this could be a 3 day process to source the appropriate vehicle. Will call Skoda in morning and start the ball rolling with that one if they can’t provide any explanation to the problem or likely time they will still need the car. So disappointing…Will keep you updated.
Ade
Hi Glos Guy. Thank you so much for replying and providing advice, it is so much appreciated. Prior to this vehicle my car was a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV which I owned since about 2017.. when energy prices were a lot lower. Most of my mileage is local now, and I remain convinced that a PHEV, with cheaper electric at night, provides more economical driving under my circumstances with local driving..(retired, not doing long journeys, never use public chargers). A really big advantage for me under these circumstances was when fuel shortages occurred. As soon as the government say don’t panic, you know happens, everyone goes out and fills up!. Full tank of petrol, keeping the PHEV charged up, never needing to fill up or queue for pumps etc, mentally, it was quite a relief. Does not suit everyone, and I am not convinced this is the future, but it really does work ok for me at this time.
Hi Christos
Thanks for replying the other day. Hope you got your Skoda is ok and all is going well. Have updated my experience so far. Fingers crossed your car will go well, the Skoda brand has been such a brilliant story over the last few years. Hoping my dealer can sort out my issues soon. The car overall is so awesome, comfortable, big, feels safe, and the metalwork feels so tough. Let me know how it all goes.
ade
@Ade As you are aware by now, its a fault with the car rather than your household electrics/charger, which often get blamed in these circumstances, as companies don’t want to see fault with their products. Your fault is with the onboard charger charging port or the battery itself.
An interesting part 2 review by Top Gear, who experienced problems, that required a software update, which ironically isn’t available yet!
https://www.topgear.com/long-term-car-reviews/skoda/kodiaq/15-tsi-iv-204-se-l-5dr-dsg/report-2
Hi Glos Guy. Thank you so much for replying and providing advice, it is so much appreciated. Prior to this vehicle my car was a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV which I owned since about 2017.. when energy prices were a lot lower. Most of my mileage is local now, and I remain convinced that a PHEV, with cheaper electric at night, provides more economical driving under my circumstances with local driving..(retired, not doing long journeys, never use public chargers). A really big advantage for me under these circumstances was when fuel shortages occurred. As soon as the government say don’t panic, you know happens, everyone goes out and fills up!. Full tank of petrol, keeping the PHEV charged up, never needing to fill up or queue for pumps etc, mentally, it was quite a relief. Does not suit everyone, and I am not convinced this is the future, but it really does work ok for me at this time.
No worries. I didn’t realise you were on your second PHEV. When you mentioned 120 mpg I assumed that you were falling in to the trap that most PHEV drivers on this forum seem to do, which is to assume that the mpg stated in the car was accurate!
I’m only 4 months and not quite 3,000 miles in to my first PHEV and I’m yet to be convinced about them. My previous 2.0i petrol 4WD BMW X1 averaged 42.2 mpg over 3 years and obviously never required charging, just one 5 minute refuel stop every 3 weeks or so. I do a mix of local (which for me is 25 mile round trip) and longer journeys and always charge after each use. Working out the mpg accurately (using the methodology described earlier) I am averaging 48.5 mpg. Yes, that’s 6 mpg better than I was getting, but I’d probably trade that 6 mpg to not have the faff of charging it after every use. I’m currently doing an experiment where I’m using a whole tank of petrol whilst not charging the car at all, to see how bad the mpg gets, and it’s currently (with half a tank used so far) delivering just 32 mpg, some 10 mpg worse than the BMW. Obviously that’s down to the additional weight of the battery and the fact that the petrol engine in the Tucson is just 1.6 litres. Looking on the bright side it’s the first time that the in-car fuel computer has been accurate!
I’m not quite sure whether i should be impressed or kind of shocked that you still peddle this nonsense.
One last time:
Take your car. Put exactly one gallon of petrol in it. Drive until the engine sputters out, measure the distance. 50 miles, great. Your car does 50 miles per gallon. Refuel the car with a single gallon of fuel, attach a battery with 20kwh for 50 miles range and an electric motor. Your car now does 100 miles. That makes 100mpg. That’s what the car is telling you, and it absolutely is the correct number to show. Because MPG only refers to petrol/diesel used. But here’s the twist: the car now also tells you that you not only used 1 gallon of fuel for 100 miles, it also tells you that you used 20kwh for 100 miles. Giving you the numbers 100mpg and 2.5 m/kwh.
These numbers are indisputably correct. There’s no argument to be had here. The argument you’re trying to force is that these numbers lie and the real cost per mile is higher than it suggests, but it doesn’t suggest a cost per mile at all. It just objectively tells you how much energy, and what energy mix you used for a given distance. That’s their only purpose.
That’s why i think you’re deliberately obtuse. This example up there? That goes for pure ICE cars, too. If i refuel one gallon in my X1, just drive it until it sputters out, i get 42 miles in distance. Now i refuel one gallon, but have my wife tow me 300 miles while idling. What’s the car going to tell me?
To suggest that a car should take your local petrol and electricity prices into account when showing you your average efficiency (effectively turning it into a “cost per mile” gauge) is just asinine. The only surprising thing (or not) is that you don’t peddle this nonsense for ICE cars, where the MPG is just as inaccurate, since again, it only tells you how many units of petrol you burned for a given distance. And of course, in your example, i’d also get better MPG because petrol here is cheaper than where you live.
Here’s a fun one. Explain how it should be done, other than giving you “units of petrol used over X distance” and “units of electricity used over X distance”, since that’s what the car is telling you right now. What would be a system that improves that?
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.@ade So sorry to hear that your issues with the Skoda PHEV continue. We picked ours up on Saturday and so far we have had no issues at all. I only charge it with a 3pin socket over night which is fine for us (works well with the Solar PV and battery system in the winter/cloudy days).
Like you I have also had an Outlander PHEV previously (spooky!) and I think that the Skoda is a massive improvement, it just feels lighter and more nimble…
The only groans I’ve got is that I would have loved more toys but didn’t want to spec and wait for a factory order. Ours is the SEL with a sunroof, the convenience pack and winter pack. I really miss a front camera (would help with parking such a big car) and the heated seats take ages to warm up. You can also hear the wind noise on the motorway esp with those massive mirrors.
The electric range is 55mmiles at the moment and of course it will get better as the days warm up. Of course, it depends how you drive it and what you use in the car (heated seats/AC/Heated steering wheel etc) but I reckon I’ll get close to 70 miles from it in the summer.
One thing I will do is wait till all the petrol is gone and fill it with super-unleaded. I read that normal unleaded (95 RON) goes off after a few months (yeah I know, but google it!) so super is better for the engine if used very sparingly.
Finally, I’ve never had a car with such large boot and this is one of the very few PHEVs in the market where the floor is not full of battery and people (esp rear passengers) seat with their knees by their heads to accommodate (we’ve tried many cars). I’ll post a couple of images when I have time (to photoshop the plates as well). All the best!
One thing I will do is wait till all the petrol is gone and fill it with super-unleaded. I read that normal unleaded (95 RON) goes off after a few months (yeah I know, but google it!) so super is better for the engine if used very sparingly.
95 RON was the regular unleaded prior to the introduction E10 (95 Octane) and is now classified as premium unleaded. Depending where you fill up super unleaded will be between 97-99 RON.
Big thanks to everyone who messaged. So glad you are getting on well with your PHEV Christos. Looks great. Anyways, quick update as promised. Phoned Skoda back end of last week and was told that there is a charging problem! They do not know why this has happened, and have contacted Skoda main office with details of what’s happened, and this is now shown as being elevated? Asked how long for a reply from Skoda, but they could not advise. So to recap, today is day 35 of taking possession of my first motability car, and day 13 of not actually having it in my possession.
We are now using a Europe car rental organised through motability which we are thankful for. However, it does not come with all the bells and whistles of the Skoda, or even the Outlander I owned previously. It also has the distinct odour of a previous cigarette smoker as the car deodoriser weakens. Of note, if anyone goes down the route of getting a Europe car rental delivered to their dealer, be sure to check carefully for any damage. Our rental has numerous paintwork and bodywork damage. The staff member at Skoda who handed the keys to me was unaware until I pointed it all out, and taking photos in his presence before driving away.
Regarding the extensive message about mpg, electric, and peddling nonsense, thank you for your advice. Hopefully when I get the car back in working order, I will be in a better position to calculate some figures. Most of my charging will be done at home using the cheap rate electric tariff, and also a local shopping centre I use that has about 18 dedicated EV charging bays. They have for many years now included the cost of charging within the price of the standard, quite reasonably priced parking ticket. As mentioned previously, I am not convinced this is the future, but it just works out well for me personally.
Thanks once again
Ade
@Ade It all sounds like a nightmare. I couldn’t drive a car that someone had smoked in. As well as being deeply unpleasant, it gives me a terrible headache, but if ever I’ve been unhappy with a hire car provided through Motability I have called the hire company and it has been changed. I suggest that you do the same as you may end up having it for a while. Good luck.
Sorry to hear you are having car issues. Re the hire car I was in a Merc GLC that was on deaths door. I called Enterprise and said my cars going to be in for a bit longer than expected and this car isn’t suitable. Ended up in a E Class. Could be worth a quick call if you get time. Cheers.
I picked up my Kodiaq sportline PHEV yesterday , all good so far . I’ve just completed my first charge using the 3 pin charger and that’s gone ok. I’ll get the wall charger installed in the new year when I sort out the shennanigans I’m having with British gas and my new smart meters. I’ll keep you updated on the kodiaq but so far no complaints and it’s a great car to drive , however deep down I still prefer the trusty RAV4 i’ve just handed back .. hopefully it will grow on me.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.