Medium load-all adopts electric assist in two variants.

 ARRIVAL next month of iV versions of the Octavia station will complete Skoda’s plug-in hybrid push here.

 The little brother to the Superb in the iV plug-in sub-brand that landed earlier this year replicates the orthodox full petrol models in provisioning in $65,990 Style and $72,990 RS formats.

 Both are eligible for the $5,750 Clean Car Discount for PHEVs – so, potentially, they could respectively be $60,240 and $67,240 post-rebate purchases.

By comparison, the Superb spans from $71,990 in Style trim and $74,990 in sharper Sportline format as a sedan with wagon equivalents costing $3000 more. Again, before the rebate, which has a $80k ceiling.

All iV cars are front-wheel-drive running a common 1.4-litre petrol engaged with a 12.8kWh battery-fed electric motor, making 85kW in isolation, delivering 62 kilometres’ pure electric range and nifty 0-100km performance.

 Whereas the Superb has an optimal combined power output of 160kW, the Octavia Style puts out 150kW and the Octavia RS runs with 180kW - the latter being the same output for the petrol-pure RS wagon already on sale here.  

The petrol RS has 20Nm less torque than the RS iV, for which a maximum output of 400Nm is claimed. The Style iV makes 350Nm; so less than the Superb.

The RS iV model sprints to 100kmh from a standing start in a claimed 7.3 seconds, which makers it slightly slower to the mark than the fully petrol edition, but it’s still the fastest iV hetre – a Super iV requires 7.7s to hit that. 

The iV Octavias get a kick-to-open automatic tailgate, a 10-inch infotainment screen with Skoda’s updated ‘Columbus’ interface, electric memory front seats, five USB-C ports, and that signature umbrella in the door. 

Whereas the Style has leather upholstery, the RS gets Alcantara and the cabin conforms to the same look that comes with full petrol RS.

The partial electric cars are a prelude and likely understudy to the fully battery-dedicated Enyaq, which Skoda now has in production for Europe and the United Kingdom but cannot supply to NZ until perhaps late 2022.

Notwithstanding the frustration in feels in not having a full-out EV here, Skoda NZ is set for 2021 being its best year of sales ever – that police car contract has simply exploded the presence of a marque that achieved 1450 registrations last year.