ERIK99

Glad that you acknowledge my reasons for buying a reasonably good IV. My comments relate to CURRENT plugin-hybrids. Older version were dreadful at supplying battery only driving, however the current models provide a clear indication of what you get and I have found that mine delivers close to what I was led to believe and therefore is NOT a con. My experience is limited to SKODA, however the idea is sound and should be developed to offset the serious issue of range anxiety that is preventing people like me from converting to all electric.

PHEV are not the con that you describe. The concept is sound, it's the implementation that is poor. All attempts to encourage NON-ICE vehicles should be made. I accept that a PHEV for a business user may mean that they make no attempt to use the battery, and that maybe most of these car are sold to fleet buyer to be used as a "company" car, HOWEVER, that is still better than an ICE car without any scope for teaching drivers about the benefit of electric cars. I am annoyed that the grant was removed on PHEV, which I did not get as a NON_Business user. I'm using my own money to teach myself about the good and bad things about electric cars, before deciding when to convert to all electric. No Electric car is pollution free over it's life cycle. They all suffer the same basic issues as ICE cars, but batteries will create a new problem, and cannot be fully recycled, however it is still a better solution than ICE only vehicles.

It's my opinion that, the current electric cars are NOT the final solution (maybe hydrogen will be better), because electric cars still create too much damage to the planet during production and in disposal. However for the time being, they offer the best solution to an immediate problem, hence my wish to at least do something to help, by going part electric. What your opinion highlights, is the that our Government has got the whole strategy on saving the planet wrong, if they cannot convince you do to do anything more than knowingly continue to cause unnecessary pollution with your car.

Hi What model superb do you have. I see that you Nav date is March 2020 (20.3). This is a bit of a surprise since my car was delivered from the factory in Sept 2020, with a Nav date of July 2020 (20.7). I know that there is now a July 2021 sat nav database so you are more than a year out of date. Does your car have an SD card reader, if so you should be able to down a later map from the Skoda web-site. Or, do you have to use on-line map updates like me (NO SD reader). If on-line only then you may have the same problem as me, being that nobody seems to know how to make it work.

Hi It's very obvious when you switch the regen system on. I think is a great idea, but it is not about varying the actual pressure on the brake pedal. I use mine to avoid most of my braking, and link it with the cruise control which also helps to reduce the speed of the car automatically, and it works really well, and I fine it far easier than using the brake. It creates a combination which effectively gives you something much talked about, being one foot driving, but not quite.

hi This is a common problem, but there is a thread on this forum that has done an update on-line, to July 2021. I have had lots of contact with SKODA UK customer services, who are useless, and have no idea. I have had the car to my dealer twice to do the update but they have failed to do it even though they know that there is an update. Since we have to pay for the online update through the skoda connect service (after 1st year) it is very bad service from SKODA (not the dealer). I'm hoping that the other thread will give some more info on how it has been done.

hi I have a 2020 (2021 version) Superb IV L&K. Are you sure that it is a 2021 version. Your photo shows the info system with real knobs. I thought all 2021 version had gone all touch screen ! MY sat nav has lots of problems. I have a slow start up process but nothing as bad as your system. Most of my issues seem to happen after I've been running it for at least an hour so I'm thinking maybe it could be overheating. When it does come on does it work OK, or are you having other issues. There are other threads on this forum about sat nav and software issues, but not the same as your problem The more faults that we can get on this forum the better we might understand who does what to get a fix. Please add a bit more info about your faults and what you have tried to get a fix.

The current crop of PHEVs (plug-ins) COULD be the best of both, but only if car makers can get more all electric capacity. The extremely high cost of the super fast chargers makes electric running much more expensive than petrol which is really silly, because this is the car makers solution for range anxiety. For me, it makes electric cars far too costly for anything but small cars, which is no good for me. Being able to fall back on combustion engine is not great for pollution, but 80 miles of battery with a reasonably fast charge (at maybe 22kwh) would be the best compromise, but this needs battery size / weight / capacity to improve quite a bit. None plug-in hybrids do very little to reduce pollution since the petrol engine is running most of the time, unlike in a PHEV.

Hi You could be right. I'm not technical and there is nothing that I can find in the manual on this setting. Personally I don't see any point in being able to vary the amount of regen anyway. It should be on or off, with on being the max possible amount because that's what I think going electric is all about. The only minor exception could be, if the battery is already fully charge, but this only last for a few mins before the battery is part depleted even if you're jsut setting off and have the heating on.

Hi This is great news. Please detail how you managed to do it.

UPDATE after 1 year of driving my Super IV L&K 2020: (Plug-in) I've done 7000 miles in total in 13 months, most of which has been during lockdown for covid-19. About 3000 miles have been all electric, the rest being in hybrid mode, with about 100 miles in sport mode just as a test. In my opinion: 1. If you do not have a home charging capability then a Plug-in Hybrid is a waste of money since you have to pay at least an extra £4000 for a battery that hardly gets used - I only have a fixed 13amp outside connection not a £700 fully featured home charging system - it takes far too long to charge (0% to 100% takes over 5 hours, this is equivalent to only 7 miles per hour of charging) - which is OK some of the time, but is useless for long trips - if travelling more than 40 miles round trip I have to use petrol which is not good - using a public charge point its a bit quicker being about 4 hours to get fully charged (7kw or quicker, about 8 miles per hour) - the car is designed to be seriously restricted to a very slow speed regardless of how fast the charge point can work, which is a MAJOR drawback 2. The cost of charging at a public charge point is so variable as to be totally stupid - it can be FREE at some supermarkets or up to 25p per mile - the 25p per mile chargers can charge at a rate of over 600 miles per hour, which is useless for the Superb which cannot benefit from the speed but still costs the same - running on petrol only cost about 11p a mile (about 48 mpg on average) - there are FREE 7kw chargers at places like Tesco and Sainsbury, these will add about 7 miles of range in an hour, which is fine if you can do your shopping and have a meal in a cafe, otherwise it's not much use. - FREE charges are also very difficult to find when touring the country on holiday, so not really that helpful, and the range added is not worth the time wasted. 3. The average range is too little to be of any real value in terms of reducing cost - I've averaged about 25 miles on a full charge, varying from 18 to 42 miles. 4. The Skoda app for controlling the charging remote is helpful for the 1st year being FREE, but is not worth the £80 for each year thereafter since the advertised map and software updates are not possible online and my car does not have a memory card reader, or CD unit to do it any other way. 5. My best all electric journey was 42 miles on full charge with a bit being added by the regen system. This was done in eco mode on a non-stop drive on a dual carriageway, at a speed of about 45 mph, in 6th gear, with virtually no acceleration, on a warm day with no wind, with no heating or cooling to use power. - a more normal scenario around home is an average of about 25 miles, being with heating / cooling, stop start etc. 6. Driving in SPORT mode to charge the battery is a waste of fuel and creates more pollution than it saves. - it better to drive in the driver selected "individual mode", and selecting some but not all of the sport features that stop the car using too much fuel and pollution 7. It's a real pain taking the time to plug in the cable in a public place in bad weather since virtually NONE of the locations are covered - simply not worth the bother for a view miles of electric range - in addition most of the FREE charging points are a long way from the door of the place that you want to go to - plus there are virtually no signs to direct you to where the points are in the car park, so you have to drive around just looking - many locations are either already in use (for many hours), or are being used by NON-Electric cars (people that can't read maybe - or you waste 30 mins or so trying the get these things to work using one of dozens of different supplier apps - or the thing are just faulty 8. Skoda are useless at diagnosing any faults on IV cars, including none IV related features such as map updates / serious SAT NAV issues 9. The setup of all the options in the car are far too complicated 10. The benefits of driving an electric car are lost because of the very limited range and very long charging times 11. Effectively it has been an expensive trial with really an otherwise great car. 12. I have been looking for an all electric car this year but decided that the cost for anything decent (same size as superb) is still far too high - in part because the silly government decided to cut the grant this year, and will no doubt cut in again next year. 13. The lost luggage space and extra weight make the car less usable, which is common for all plug-in hybrids. 14. my best trip was where I managed 40 miles all electric PLUS another 8 miles from regen over a trip of about 100 miles. Suggestions based on my experience: 1. Plug-in hybrids could be far better if the car makers supplied faster charging, and at least 80 miles of range (which would qualify for a grant) 2. Skoda need to get their act together to properly support IV drivers 3. Voice command needs a massive improvement - the current system is next to useless 4. The skoda SAT NAV system needs a re-think to be more like Tesla, and it MUST have monthly updates for maps including all new charge points 5. The Skoda connect app should be included for free for at least 3 years 6. The skoda app needs to be made more functional and be made reliable (currently fails too often) 7. Skoda needs to get the problems with basic SAT NAV functions sorted, now - I've had faults logged for over 6 months, with no fixes, or any date for a fix. 8. Skoda should never tell its customers to rely on non-Skoda apps to make up for Skoda failures on a car that costs over £41,000 (ZapMap) Hope this is helpful

Hi I've been having the same issue with SKODA about a service that has been paid for but is not being provided (Skoda Connect). I'm not interested in some non-standard alternative that has the potential to screw up things and invalidate the real solution. I have version date july 2020, for UK, but I have seen May2021 on new superb so there is an update, but skoda have not made it available. We should all make a formal complaint to SKODA HQ NOT the UK address.

If you have the Skoda connect app all the details will show on there as well. Also, you can press the e-mode button (next to the gear lever) and select options from the menu that should show actual usage.

Hi What is the model of your superb. Mine is the L&K and it does not have paddles. This may only apply to L&K ! There are effectively 3 regen modes, plus a 4th option: None - Put the car in the "D" mode using the gear lever - there will be no regen to add to battery charge Reduce regen: put into "B" mode for regen - then select "Reduced" from the 2 options (see below) Max regen: put into "B" mode - select "Maximum" from the 2 options. You can also put the car into "Sport" mode which will also use the engine to charge the battery all of the time (uses more fuel) How to choose regen options: Press the Menu button to get the main menu Press the "Vehicle" button on the screen then select "vehicle settings then select "charging current" then choose either Maximum or Reduced I've no idea how much different it makes in reduced mode (not tried it) but the MAX mode is very noticeable in slowing the car down at all speeds, almost a stop. "D" mode just lets the car run without slowing very much (no regen charging).

Hi Can you please tell me how you got a map update, and what the current date is of the map. mine is date 0720, which I assume is July 2020. I've been told that 2021 cars have a newer map dated 0521, but nobody can tell me how to get it downloaded. Its interesting that you use sport mode to do constant charging. My purpose for going plugin-hybrid was to avoid using the petrol engine to charge the battery which seem to be the non-green way to get electric power. I'm quite sure that the the extra petrol used is neither good for the environment or good value, since I think that the cost in lost fuel is more than the cost of waiting until you can pug in again at home, unless you don't have home charging. I see a plugin car as a part of my progress towards all electric in the near future, and I've been driving using the same as I would if already all electric with regard to planning routes, testing charging points, testing apps that find the charging points, comparing prices across the country, testing telephone support services (many charge point don't work, checking if there are free spaces when I get to charge point etc. It is possible to set the max battery use to more than 0% to keep back power for traffic jams, if this is a regular mode of use, which is great for pollution. The nuisance is that it's not easy to just change the setting on the go (too many sub-menus to play with) so that you can use the last 10% or so of battery that you have reserved for heavy traffic. For me the normal "B" mode with FULL regenerative option set to on, is the best compromise. At first I thought that there was very little extra electric range from this mode, however on a recent trip of about 100 miles, driving in ECO mode, I got 40 miles all electric followed by a further 8 miles from regeneration (49 miles all electric, without needing to use SPORT mode to force the battery recharge. I've noticed that if there are only a few times when you need to the extra power, for overtaking maybe, that pressing the sport mode button for a short time always seems to have some battery available to ensure power from both petrol and battery to supply really quick acceleration for a short burst, which is one of the reason for me to buy this specific car. I note that you normally only charge to 80% - why is that ? I always charge to 100% to be sure that I always get max use of all electric mode to avoid as much pollution as possible. I have read the views on only going to 80% charge, to keep the battery in "good" condition, but I'm sceptical about this. It seems to me to be a simple way for car makers to avoid warranty claims for batteries that fail early (less than 8 years). I'm not too bothered about what this car will be doing in 4 years time, let alone 8 years. If everyone follows this guidance (battery to 80%) then we all need cars now which claim to do at least 450 miles, which will maybe give a real world actual of about 300 miles range.

Hi You cannot do most software updates yourself. It has to be done by a dealer / service dept. The Superb IV is supposed to have the capability to automatically do software updates if you can link it to the internet, but only if SKODA have released a general update, which has not happened in the last 12 months. There are other dealer only bits of software that can be done to fix specific issues but I doubt that most dealers are capable of doing them. I currently have a lot of issues with software faults, mainly on the SAT NAV, but nobody at SKODA customer services, or at any of the 3 skoda dealers I've asked, has any idea on how to get the fixes, or to even how to get get map updates. The skoda connect service (included free for the 1st 12 mths) should do all this automatically (if you link to the internet) but it clearly does not work. It's interesting that you are using the hybrid mode all the time (per your message today). I always use the battery only option for all my journeys until the battery runs out. This is the only way to really know how far the battery range actually is. It also means that you should be able to do lots of electric only short journeys without ever using any petrol. If you always use hybrid mode the car will use petrol most of the time because it tries to save the battery for when you go slow, or when you accelerate aggressively to get the best speed, as it does if you select SPORT mode. Once the car automatically jumps from all electric to hybrid mode (because of hard acceleration or in sport mode) it can take a few miles of eco driving for the car to switch back to all electric mode, even if you try to force it to do so via the options in e-mode settings. Once you run out of battery the car will always switch to hybrid auto, which will then be almost all petrol with a little battery assistance from the regenerative charging which you get mainly from being in the "B" mode. I went to Margate last week. I managed 32 miles all electric before the battery ran out, then for the next 90 miles I had about 10 miles extra from the battery regen process and 80 miles petrol. Overall I managed 76.3 mpg (that's the car taking the average including 42 miles all electric). My normal petrol only is about 48 mpg. Are you using the Skoda app. If not get it loaded and linked to your car. It gives lots of really helpful info on usage.

It sounds to me as though you are not fully understanding how the car works out how far it thinks it can travel on a 100% charge. It's not clear from your note, but I am assuming that you are saying that on different days that you are seeing an ESTIMATED range that varies between 34 and 23 miles. If this is the case, then what you are seeing, is BASED ON your previous days driving. The car is estimating what your next journey will be, if you drive in the same way as you did yesterday (or since your last charge), but it never is. This does not mean that the actual distance that you can travel will actually be 34 or 23 miles. The actual range each time you drive is totally dependant on how you drive on the current charge. For example, I have driven 42 miles on a 100% charge when the car has estimated that my range is only 24 mile. This was because I drove in a very economical manner. After driving 42 miles the car estimated that my next charge to 100% would do 42 miles, but it wasn't because I drove differently. In general you can expect the battery to give slightly less range in really cold weather, but the last few weeks should not have been cold enough to cause too much difference. I was told by the dealer that the "fix" for me was software (the car computer), however my range was initially far less than you have quoted so I do not think that you have the same problem. I was only getting 16 miles of actual range on a full charge. For comparison, my current range is varying between 24 and 35 so it's in line with what you are seeing, so I think that there is no fault. You need to be more aware of the actual number of miles that you get from each 100% charge, and not the estimated range. If the car has been using petrol as well as battery, the estimated battery only range is always going to be unreliable. A key indicator of actual battery capability (and how you have been driving) is shown on the electric information display shown as miles per kw. For me with short trips around town I rarely get anything any higher 2.6 miles per kilowatt hour of charge, which means no more than about 24 miles of actual range. When driving on the open road at a steady speed of 45 to 50 mph, the miles per kilowatt will be between 4 and 5, and gives an actual range of between 35 and 40 miles. All of my driving information quoted here is based on using the "B" drive mode, with 100% regeneration, with no reserve for battery. Unlike full electric cars, the Superb has gears which will affect actual range in the same way as with petrol. You will get less range if you are driving in low gears. For me, the only way to prove if the car has a fault or not, is to drive on a road with no stops at about 45mph. This should give you somewhere between 32 and 40 miles before the battery is all used (set the option reserve battery to zero so that the battery is fully used before the car switched to hybrid auto mode). If you can do the same route, in the same driving style, you should get a consistent result. If you then drive with lots of gear changes and acceleration, on the same route you will see a substantial drop in the actual distance travelled before the battery runs out. This is how it is supposed to work, and cannot be fairly compared to an ALL ELECTRIC car which has only one gear. Hope this helps.

How did you get the error codes ??? How would you know if the software had already been updated to your version ??? My version has not changed from 0720. Given the better weather this week I did more range tests on battery only. On mainly dual carriage way, temp about 15c, average speed of 36 mph, mainly at a constant 45 mph, no use of a/c , managed to get 42 miles. On the same route, temp about 23c, average speed of 41 mph, speeds of over 60mph, with a/c ON for cooling, managed 43 miles. This sort of range is very good compared to where the car was on delivery in Sept 2020, when I was only getting 16 to 20 miles range.

Hi My software fix was done after I'd complained about poor range on the battery, AND the fact that my car had stopped charging via my home cable. It seemed most likely that it was a cable fault HOWEVER, I was told that it was fixed with a software update. As soon as that software was updated my battery only ranged jumped dramatically, hence MY link between the software update and range improvement. There is so much software being used it's hard to know what fixes do what. The dealer refused to give me a copy of the detailed fault / fix sheet that the mechanic did so I cannot give you any specifics of what was updated. The software code given via the car is unlikely to be sufficient to tell you that you have ALL of the latest updates. Regardless of the software and the cold weather, I managed to get 42 miles on battery only recently, using a sort of super ECO driving style, on mainly flat roads going quite slow in 3rd and 4th gears, no heating (which is the biggest drain) - so I do now believe that driving style is the KEY to getting the best range, and my car is now 3 months older than when I was only getting 16 miles on a full charge. Looking forward to more drives in the spring to check out battery only range.

Hi I recently managed to get 42 miles on electric only with a 98% charge. That's amazing. Never thought that it would be possible given my previously experience with this car (Superb IV). Since this very ECO trip, low speed and no use of any electric accessories, I've managed a few more ECO trips on electric only and I can now get an average of around of about 30 miles range without too much effort, so I'm much happier now to accept that's it's not the cold weather causing poor battery performance and that the estimated range (before staring off on a trip) is ONLY based on the last trip. After my 42 mile all electric trip my fully charged battery estimated a potential range of 39 miles, which was obviously could only have been based on the previous trip.

No idea how you can tell. Why does it matter. It takes about 5 hours 20 mins to charge my Superb IV from 0% to 100% charge, using the Skoda 13 amp cable, plugged into a 30 amp home supply.

Hi My IV on petrol only (1.4 TSI) managed about 45 mpg over 2 trips on a motorway over about 400 miles, with speed almost always between 65 and 70 mph. I would think that if you someone is only getting 28 mpg in the same type of car then this low level of economy is more likely to be due to the style of driving rather than the basic capability of the car. However I too have ben a long running advocate of diesels have had 8 Skoda diesels, in Superb and Octavia, all of which gave better fuel economy than my new IV, even allowing for use of no fuel on battery only. This is why I am so angry at being conned by Skoda into believing that you can get anywhere near 35 miles on battery only, which I could live with. My latest "battery charging" range this week at Zero centigrade overnight, was 26 miles, which is consistent with what I was getting during much warmer weather.

It's been about 0 degrees here last week and I can an estimated range of 26 miles before using, which for me is as good as had got during Sept in warmer weather. Actual range is a bit less due to the use of heating, lights, seats, steering wheel etc , but is great compared to pre- fix situation. I know that actual use is affected by how I drive, hence my careful attention to the estimated range prior to use, which I think is a better guide since I know how I have been driving so I can account for that. What makes it very difficult to compare though, is not knowing how the estimating works, and how many previous trips etc is used in the calculation. I have a lot of experience in watching my previous NON-IV cars vary the range on a long journey so that you can tell that more eco driving changes the increases the est range dramatically, and the reverse being true if driving more quickly. However, the range is never enough to see that on battery only, given max trip of about 26 miles. My own range checking on a set route, does give evidence that an average speed of about 40mph, without much variation, will get me about the original range estimate at the start of the trip, and that a higher average speed of about 50mph gets me far less that the original range, and then the next full charge will est is slightly lower range, being based on the faster average speed from the last trip.

Hi Covered this on another post somewhere. Nothing specific about what bit of Software was updated, and I was refused the chance to get a copy of the official notes from the engineers report on what had been found. My basic software ref after the update (may be the same as before since I did not know about it beforehand) is now 0270. Hardware code is H22. Nav database is 20.7. Car was build in July 2020, being the latest version in the Uk I think. L&K - Delivered Sept 2020

The official story from the Skoda engineer was that my car had a fault that was resolved ONLY by the software update, nothing physical. It had a failure where it appeared that the cable was no good since it had a red light and would not charge at all. After the software upgrade it worked and the battery gave much better range, so I'm sure it did make the difference. The engineer said that the pre-updated software had been restricting the battery from getting a full charge, hence only getting 16 miles range, so in my case, I am certain the software did the trick.