2026 Skoda Kodiaq PHEV review: Australian first drive

Skoda is finally playing in the hybrid game in Australia.

The Volkswagen-owned Czech car brand has admitted it lost sales in recent years due to a lack of hybrid models, but it now offers a handful of mild-hybrid and plug-in-hybrid versions of some of its best-known models.

Among the most important is the Kodiaq plug-in hybrid, which offers 112km of claimed electric-only driving range with the same footprint and technology as the regular petrol version.

Is it worth the compromise of deleting the third row of seats, or is it the Kodiaq to buy?

The Kodiaq PHEV is sold in entry-level Select trim, priced from $63,490 plus on-road costs, or $68,990 drive-away nationwide.

It is offered with front-wheel drive and only five seats, as the battery pack’s placement under the second-row seats means the fuel tank occupies space under the boot floor for stowing the third row.

The PHEV is priced $19,000 higher than the new Select mild-hybrid with FWD and five seats, and $12,000 higher than the 2.0-litre Select seven-seater with all-wheel drive.

It is competitive on price and much better equipped than a Mazda CX-60 P50e Pure five-seater ($63,790 plus on-roads), and sits between the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV ES five-seater ($58,990 plus on-roads) and Outlander PHEV Aspire seven-seater ($66,790 plus on-roads).

If seven seats capable of fitting adults are a must, the Kia Sorento S plug-in hybrid starts at $71,130 plus on-roads, though it has a shorter electric range and fewer features than the Skoda at a higher price.

The Kodiaq cannot match Chinese brands on price, though. BYD will match the Skoda’s price for a much bigger, seven-seat Sealion 8 Dynamic with all-wheel drive, while Chery offers the seven-seat all-wheel-drive Tiggo 9 for $59,990 plus on-road costs.

Standard features in the Kodiaq PHEV include 19-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, a 13-inch touchscreen with wireless/wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, leather trim, a power-adjustable driver’s seat, tri-zone climate control, heated front seats, dual wireless phone chargers, and a power tailgate.

There is also a nine-speaker sound system, a 10.25-inch instrument display, front and rear parking sensors, and safety features from adaptive cruise control and lane-centring assist to traffic sign recognition, though only a rear-view camera.

A 360-degree view camera is locked into the $6500 Signature Package, which includes a power-adjustable passenger seat with memory and lumbar control, auto parking, matrix LED headlights, illuminated front grille, hands-free power tailgate, Canton premium auto, heated outboard rear seats, a head-up display, rear scrolling indicators, and massaging and ventilated front seats.

A panoramic sunroof is a further $2000 option, while 20-inch alloys cost $770 extra.

Opting for the plug-in hybrid over a regular 2.0-litre petrol Kodiaq brings compromises at the rear of the vehicle – some more significant than others.

The biggest one is the deletion of the third row of seats. Skoda places the battery under the second-row seats, so the fuel tank moves underneath the boot floor, where the third row would usually be stowed.

What that means is buyers get a huge boot all the time. It is slightly smaller (about 7 to 10 per cent) than a regular Kodiaq, but it is still a large load area with more than enough room for suitcases, groceries, and family-related items.

There are plenty of handy amenities, including nooks, lights, bag hooks, a 12-volt socket, and adjustable cargo rails that Velcro to the boot floor, plus a power tailgate as standard, and some space under the floor for charging cables and the tyre repair kit (there’s no spare wheel).

Space in the second row is as generous ever, with lots of knee room, toe room and head room for my 186cm (6ft 1in) frame behind my driving position, provided the bench is slid all the way back – which you can now do without worrying about crushing third-row passengers’ legs – and a reclining backrest.

The seats fold 40:20:40 for an even bigger boot, and amenities for rear passengers are generous, from a pop-in storage divider in the centre of the floor, to air vents, map pockets, sunshades in the doors, a fold-down armrest, two USB-C ports, and a 12-volt socket.

Outboard ISOFIX and three top-tether child-seat anchor points are also included, with heated outboard seats an optional extra.

Up front, the Kodiaq gets the basics right. The driving position is set high, there is plenty of room for tall drivers, and the steering column – with a great, well-sized leather-trimmed wheel – offers enough tilt and reach adjustment.

The front seats are firmly padded yet comfortable, with ample support, including under-thigh extension. Power adjustment is included on the driver’s side as standard, and leather trim.

Moving the gear selector to a steering column stalk – and the parking brake switch to the dashboard, near the driver’s right knee – opens up space in the centre console for up to four cupholders, and dual ventilated wireless phone chargers with a shelf above them.

Many of the car’s functions run through the touchscreen, but three customisable ‘Smart Dials’ make life easier as they control a variety of vehicle settings from air temperature to the volume.

They spin like any other dial, but pushing them in allows you to change what they control between a series of presets.

The outer dials can be adjust air temperature or heated seats, while the centre controller can be set to adjust four of the following six parameters: volume, fan speed, air direction, ‘Smart Climate’, drive mode, and navigation map zoom.

They’re not perfect – you still need to look away from the road to use them – but the Smart Dials are a massive improvement over tapping through multiple layers of touchscreen menus for basic functions.

Physical buttons for recirculating air, auto climate, and other functions surround the Smart Dials, while the clicky controls on the steering wheel are also appreciated.

Soft-touch materials are used on the doors and dashboard, and the centre armrests slides and tilts to meet the elbows of drivers of different heights, but less impressive is build quality.

Both Kodiaq PHEVs I drove rattled from the passenger side of the car – much like the other three Kodiaqs I’ve previously tested, which had issues from a vibration behind the dashboard to resonance in the door panels.

It is a frustrating miss from a brand that sees European quality as a way to stand apart from the growing number of Chinese companies charging lower prices for comparable vehicles.

Storage is otherwise good, with dual gloveboxes and roomy door pockets, and it’s loaded with Skoda’s ‘Simply Clever’ practicality touches, including bins in the door pockets, umbrellas in the doors, a screen cleaner in the centre console, and pop-out door edge protectors.

The 13-inch touchscreen in every Kodiaq works well, with quick responses, attractive graphics, and plenty of shortcuts, from a customisable bar at the top of the screen for functions such as lane-keep assist and auto hold, to key apps pinned to the bottom of the display.

Wireless Apple CarPlay worked reliability in our testing, with no dropouts – the reverse of my previous experiences with other new Kodiaqs, so your mileage may vary in this regard.

There’s also a wired version of CarPlay, should it be required, plus wireless and wired Android Auto, satellite navigation, FM and digital radio, and voice control.

An annoying oversight is the placement of a touch-sensitive power button for the infotainment screen directly below the display, so I found my hand to press it by mistake while trying to interact with the multimedia system.

The 10-inch instrument display is easy to read and offers plenty of customisation, including navigation maps, but it looks quite small in its housing, with a chunky bezel. It’s not as capable as the digital driver’s displays in older Skoda vehicles.

Optional is a head-up display and a 13-speaker Canton premium audio system (plus subwoofer), which is an upgrade over the somewhat mediocre base nine-speaker stereo.

There is no smartphone companion app for the vehicle.

The petrol Skoda Kodiaq carries a five-star safety rating from ANCAP, but it is yet to extend to the plug-in hybrid.

For context, 1.5-litre and 2.0-litre petrol versions earned category scores of 89 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 82 per cent for vulnerable road user protection (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists), and 81 per cent for safety assist technology.

There’s a broad suite of advanced safety features standard on the Skoda Kodiaq, and most work smartly, intuitively and without annoyance.

Adaptive cruise control holds the set speed smoothly, lane-centring assist follows the lane markings without bouncing between the white lines, and there were no false activations of the autonomous emergency braking in this limited test.

The traffic-sign recognition tech is prone to misreading speed limits, as with all systems of its type, but by default, should the car exceed the limit it’s detected – correct or otherwise – it will only flash an icon on the dashboard, not make a sound.

There is an audible alert, but unlike most cars with such a feature, it is opt-in, not opt-out every time the car is started.

There’s also a driver distraction alert, but it is limited to a reminder that you’re wandering in the lane, or interacting with the touchscreen for too long – and locking you out of it for a few seconds – rather than producing a loud sound.

Among the few irritations is the lane-keep assist. Around town, it is smooth and only intervenes when the car crosses a white line, but in tight lanes or on country roads with no markings, it tugs on the steering wheel much more frequently than we’d like.

Fortunately, it is easy to turn off via a safety assist button on the steering wheel.

A 360-degree camera is also an optional extra, with only a relatively low-resolution rear-view camera fitted as standard.

The way plug-in hybrid vehicles are tested for the fuel consumption sticker on the windscreen heavily favours battery charge, so the Kodiaq’s 1.9 litres per 100 kilometres claim requires very particular circumstances to achieve.

We spent most of our time in hybrid manual mode, where the car works to maintain the current level of charge in the battery.

On the motorway – when you’d be most likely to use a feature like this – the car displayed consumption as low as the high-3.0L/100km range down hills, settling on an average of 4.6L/100km after 120km of freeway and extra-urban running.

That’s a good result given the car is operating like a regular hybrid, and not leveraging its big battery for long stints of electric driving.

Achieve this over a longer drive, and the PHEV is good for about 1000km of range. The 45-litre fuel tank is smaller than petrol Kodiaqs, presumably as there is less space under the boot floor where it now sits, rather than below the rear seats.

In more spirited country driving – where we allowed the car to consume about 10 per cent battery over 80km – I saw indicated fuel use of 6.3L/100km, and energy consumption of 2.4kWh/100km, which is also a reasonable result given I wasn’t trying to hypermile.

There’s a hybrid automatic mode that will see the car use as much of its battery as possible to lower fuel consumption. It’s this setting that will likely get close to the 1.9L/100km claim, but will require regular overnight recharging.

Skoda claims that in electric mode, the Kodiaq will cover 112km before the petrol engine turns on.

I returned energy consumption as low as 18kWh/100km – which, despite being much higher than Skoda’s 14.8kWh/100km claim, is enough for 109km of electric range – and as high as 24kWh/100km, for about 80km of electric range.

The battery pack can be recharged at up to 50kW on DC fast chargers, for a 10 to 80 per cent recharge in a claimed 25 minutes, while an 11kW AC wallbox at your home or office is claimed to deliver an empty to full recharge in two-and-a-half hours.

The Kodiaq PHEV uses the latest plug-in hybrid technology from Skoda’s parent company Volkswagen, combining a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine with an electric motor.

It is a little more powerful (10kW) than the 2.0-litre petrol Kodiaq, but the weight of the electric motor and battery pack mean that, on paper, it is a touch slower to accelerate.

In the real world, the hybrid boost gives this Kodiaq a perkier feel. The electric motor is powerful enough to carry most of the load around town, only starting the engine when hard acceleration is required or the battery runs low.

On battery power, there is a hint of lag between pressing the accelerator pedal and the electric motor providing power, but it’s easy to get used to. Accelerating to highway speeds is also not a challenge, though the car begins to run out of breath once you get there.

The switch from electric to petrol power is smooth, and little is heard of the engine in regular driving when it steps in, though there’s a surprising amount of electric motor whine under acceleration.

As with many rivals, the electric motor is mounted inside the transmission, so the car will shift gears while on battery power, but it’s not often noticeable.

Each time the Kodiaq is started, drivers are asked to choose between E-mode (electric) or Hybrid, the latter with two settings: Automatic, where the car depletes battery charge to reduce fuel economy, and Manual, where the current battery level is maintained for use later.

The lack of all-wheel drive is noticeable when powering out of a T-junction; the car’s electronics chime in to stop the front wheels spinning. Decent Hankook tyres help keep that to a minimum.

Skoda has tuned the suspension for comfort over sportiness. There is a taut edge to the way the Kodiaq soaks up sharp bumps on the road – with a few clunks from the wheels when hitting particularly deep potholes – but for the most part, it is a soft and supple car to drive.

That’s evident on country roads. The Kodiaq doesn’t feel sporty over undulations and crests in the road; the suspension allows the body to float gently rather than gluing it to the tarmac, but it feels more composed and ‘sure-footed’ than many Chinese competitors.

There is no option to adjust the firmness of the suspension, but it doesn’t need it.

Quick and accurate steering that’s well weighted, whether in Normal or dialled up in Sport, makes the car easy to place on the road, and adds a degree of driver enjoyment on winding country tarmac.

It’s very easy to twirl at low speeds, and the turning circle is compact for a vehicle of this size. Visibility is also good and helped by the high driving position.

The brake pedal is intuitively weighted and easy to judge, with no overly stiff or particularly squidgy feeling that many hybrids suffer from. The point at which the regenerative braking of the electric motor – recuperating energy as you decelerate – blends with the ‘friction’ disc brakes is also not too obvious.

Drivers can choose between Automatic, High and Low settings for the regenerative braking. None will bring the car to a full stop without touching the brake pedal, but all are tuned well and don’t possess any unusual behaviours.

Tyre roar is noticeable at motorway speeds, but it can be drowned out with the stereo, while wind noise is well suppressed.

The standard LED headlights are not the best under low beams, while the high-beam range is quite good. A button to activate ‘wet-weather lights’ adds some extra illumination along the edges of the road.

However, country drivers will benefit from the matrix LED headlights in the Signature Pack, which gain auto high-beam tech capable of blanking out part of the headlight beam to avoid blinding oncoming drivers.

It’s about time Skoda added some form of hybrid power to the Kodiaq SUV.

It has done so with an excellent electric-only driving range, plus perky performance and low fuel economy, helped by regular battery charging.

The best of the petrol Kodiaq hasn’t been lost in the transition: a spacious cabin, up-to-date technology, a refined driving experience, and the practical features and seven-year warranty Skoda sells itself on.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Deleting the third row of seats may be a deal-breaker for some customers, as might the lack of all-wheel drive, and we expected more from the build quality.

It is competitive on price with PHEVs from established brands, but for buyers willing to take a punt on something new, you can get more for less in a Chinese car.

If you’re looking at a plug-in hybrid from a marque such as Mitsubishi, Mazda, Kia, BYD or GWM, the Skoda Kodiaq PHEV has a lot to offer, and it’s worth a test drive.

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

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