Skoda EVs won't launch with connected tech in Australia

Skoda Australia won’t be launching its new Enyaq EV with connected services, despite the Volkswagen brand looking to launch a connected infrastructure with the related ID.4 and ID.5 electric SUVs in December.

“On this car [the Enyaq], the European connectivity features are not available in Australia,” Skoda Australia director Michael Irmer told CarExpert.

“We have another solution [working with other members of the Group]. We have availability, [but] we haven’t yet decided about this, but maybe we are overthinking it a bit.

“Technically the car is connected to your phone permanently; you have traffic, you have maps, you have music streaming, the availability of parking spots and so on, and [the] Plugshare [app] shows you charge point availability.”

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While Mr Irmer said these features can be viewed as a “much of a muchness” given the already high level of specification and technology the Enyaq will offer at launch, Skoda’s local boss acknowledged it’s something the brand has to consider when the bulk of its rivals offer it.

For reference, the Tesla Model Y, Toyota bZ4X and Hyundai Ioniq 5 all offer some form of net-based services and remote app functionality as standard, with the Kia EV6 to join the party later this year with the incoming mid-life facelift.

Volkswagen will also join the connected vehicle party with the new ID.4 and ID.5 electric crossovers in the coming months, based off the same MEB architecture as Skoda’s Enyaq, the Cupra Born and Tavascan, as well as Audi’s new Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron.

Speaking with CarExpert late last year, Volkswagen (and Skoda’s) product communications manager Daniel DeGasperi said: “We will launch ID.4 and ID.5 as the first of the Volkswagen electric vehicles with a connectivity solution we have been working on – it’s a manufacturer-designed solution”.

“We’ve been working on it between global and our local outfit for a while now. But it’s in a place where we can say that we we’ll have it ready for ID.4 and ID.5.”

Mr DeGasperi also noted that part of the reason the Volkswagen Group has taken so long to bring these kinds of features to Australia is due to our market not being approved for this level of connectivity until now.

“Like proofing anything for particular markets, it needs to be proofed thoroughly and it needs to be technical approved and there’s myriad reasons behind the scenes as to why,” he said.

“But in the rollout of connectivity, Australia was not an approved market for those connectivity solutions, but we have not been sitting idle for for that. We’ve been working, we’ve known for a while that it has been coming. We’re just a little bit delayed.”

Audi Australia, while also under the VW Group banner locally, has long offered its own connected solutions via the Audi connect plus feature which offers a range of online features and remote functions; but it appears the new Q4 e-tron will miss out on these features, at least initially, as it has been omitted from local specifications.

It’s understood the range of products based on the MEB architecture have a different connected car module to combustion platformed models within the Group, hence why electric vehicles based on this platform have some feature discrepancies in Australia.

For example, Australian-delivered Cupra Borns don’t offer wireless smartphone mirroring, satellite navigation or Travel Assist (semi-autonomous highway mode), as all of these features are tied to this connected car module that isn’t available to our market as yet.

“The Born had only been developed as a connected vehicle,” Jeff Shafer, head of product and planning for Cupra Australia, told CarExpert at the launch of the Born last year.

“We weren’t able to, in the timeframe, develop the connectivity functions [for Australia] – there are some technical reasons behind that – but we knew we needed to have that car in the initial phase of Cupra, so the factory developed this version for us that doesn’t have the connectivity function, which does affect a few of the vehicle’s systems.

“Connectivity will be something that we’ll look at over the next few years to develop and bring in and add to the core, but we’ll be looking to improve it year on year.”

The 2025 Skoda Enyaq Coupe is available to order now ahead of deliveries commencing in December. Pricing starts from $69,990 before on-road costs – read our full pricing and specs story here.

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