Feel like van life might be your thing? Skoda shows what's possible with a roof tent and a big boot…
By PH Staff / Monday, 25 July 2022 / Loading comments
The option of sleeping in your car used to mean you’d exhausted all other options. These days, not so much. Not only is there a wide variety of very fashionable (and expensive) camper vans to choose from, there is also an increasingly large aftermarket dedicated to the business of turning your car into a desirable place to spend the night.
Roll forward the Skoda Enyaq iV 80 FestEVal, a one-off creation that shows just how far you can go if you’ve got a manufacturer-sized marketing budget to hand. Alongside the novelty of it being all-electric, the most notable innovation is the Czech-made EGOE ‘box’ in the back, which houses an integrated gas cooker, a collapsible sink with tap and hose, along with a preparation area and ‘ample’ storage.
Now, obviously you need to limit your aspiration when it comes to preparation and storage – plainly you’re not going to be serving a full English to all your guests – but the specialist camping unit, which apparently slides ‘effortlessly’ out of the 585-litre boot, is undeniably a natty looking thing. If also conceals a double bed frame that can be extended across the folded rear seats, providing one of two sleeping areas on the FestEVal.
The other is, you won’t be surprised to hear, is located in the roof tent. Slightly less novel perhaps, and definitely not as quiet once inside – but probably no less convenient. Skoda reckons it offers ‘premium’ grade sleeping quarters for two, which includes netting inside for storage, a solar-powered fan and an integrated torch for convenience. The ladder needed for access is stored inside the box, too, and Skoda reckons the aerodynamic design ‘aligns to the ENYAQ iV’s impressive streamline credentials’.
It doesn’t mention how much additional mass the FestEVal has added to the model’s kerbweight – nor how much the project cost – but we’re going to go right ahead and say a planet-load. But anyone looking forward to a good nights sleep with three close friends in a fully-functioning EV is probably not expecting to skip lightly across the campsite. Especially if you’re anticipating 300 odd miles between charges, which is what Skoda suggests the Enyaq iV is still capable of, even with the additional kit.
Plus, of course, it’s a bit of Instagrammable fun anyway. And if nothing else, it’s keyed us into the Nestboxes and Nestboxes available from Egoe – the latter designed specifically for estate cars. “Let us convince you that a boot is all you need when travelling” heralds the blurb, enticingly. Given the ‘new normal’ being trailered at Dover at the moment, the firm might be about to experience exponential growth on this side of the Channel.
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