Skoda Superb

What to expect from the India bound sedan

So what’s the fuss all about? Well, we wanted to find out how plug-in hybrids perform in the real world. Hence we got ourselves a new generation Skoda Superb iV (which is the latest plug-in hybrid from Skoda) and tried to drive it purely on electricity and find out the range first. We drove it purely in city conditions and found out that it could do 74km before the internal combustion engine kicked in. For a country like Lithuania and especially its capital city Vilnius, an all electric range of 74km seems just right. One can take kids to school, go to work and even if you live on the outskirts of town, there is a high chance that you can manage to just about get home before the engine is needed. Once home the car can once again be plugged in for a recharge. This in turn ensures reduced need to spend money on fuel. The Superb on the other hand is a perfect tool for a comfortable everyday commute and also a long drive.

After covering 74 “electric” kilometers in a day in Vilnius and not charging the battery, we then traveled around Lithuania over the weekend collecting hybrid kilometers. They were collected over nine hundred, and the total mileage using both power sources exceeded a 1,000km. This was

achieved with less than 50 litres of petrol and several kilowatt-hours of electricity. That came as a surprise as Škoda states that the Superb iV can cover 62km (WLTP mode) on electricity alone and 960km on both power sources. So we quite simply bettered that!

We also think that this type of vehicle is a great intermediate car for people who want to go green, but cannot use an electric car due to their needs. How is that you ask? Well, you can drive around the city with such a car all week long, charging at home or during the day - at work. This saves money because electric kilometers are several times cheaper than petrol. But electric cars don’t meet everyone’s needs right now and you have to be a mathematician to plan your trips even if you