Looked at a few EVs that I can't get to see in Australia

I've just got home from a trip to Britain. Now that borders have opened again, I was able to visit my parents and my sister and her family for the first time in three years. I did lots of tourist stuff too: all the traditional British things like eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding; drinking Irn-Bru; catching Covid; isolating for a while; and visiting the Lake District and Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

But I also thought I'd take the opportunity to look at some EVs that either aren't available to buy in Australia yet, or which aren't available for test-drives or even showroom viewing. I thought this would be useful to see whether it's worth waiting until these cars come to Australia later this year or early next year (or in the case of Hyundai and Kia, whether they're worth the two-year waiting list).

Test-driving is a challenge on a foreign licence, so my only test drive was a Skoda Enyaq. But I also had a good look at the VW ID.4, Mercedes EQB, Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6.

Ioniq 5 and EV6

The Ioniq 5 and EV6 are both on sale here. But there's a two-year waiting list; you're not allowed to test-drive them; and they're not available for viewing in showrooms. Given that they're siblings - and that the dealers were next door to each other I thought I'd write about them together here.

From watching YouTube and looking at pictures, I've always thought that the Kia looked to have an interior that, while darker, would feel nicer, with better materials.

But I was wrong.

The EV6 felt cheap to me. I didn't like the materials on the dash or the door card. They felt flimsy. The centre console was wobbly. The driver's seat was uncomfortable: the head restraint is too far forward, so I found myself having to bend my head forward.

In the back, there was loads of knee room, but not that much headroom. And while legroom in general was great, you couldn't get your feet under the front seat, so foot space was limited.

And it was really dark. The side windows are pretty narrow, and there's no panoramic sunroof - just a little one like you used to get in the 80s. The materials were very black. I just didn't like it.

Meanwhile, I always thought that the Hyundai would feel a bit plasticky and tinny. But it didn't. The seats felt plush, and like real leather. The door cards - which I know are recycled paper - felt like leather too. I thought they'd feel quite nasty, but they didn't at all. The glovebox drawer felt smooth and solid, and the movement of the slidey centre console was really satisfying. The driver's seat was incredibly comfortable. It was unusually soft for a modern car, so I don't know if it might cause backache on a long journey.

Both in the front and the back, there was a real sense of space. Some of this was real - there's an enormous amount of legroom in both front and back, and tons of headroom. And it's really wide inside. But some of it was an illusion, because the glasshouse is massive: windows are deep, and there was a good panoramic sunroof. I'm sure it helped that this one had pale grey upholstery and light headlining too. It really felt like a lovely, relaxing place to be.

You sit higher than you do in the Kia, so it was easy to get in and out of, even for my hip-replaced dad.

The boot (trunk) was long, but quite shallow in both cars.

All in all, I really liked the Hyundai, and didn't like the Kia at all.

Mustang Mach-E

The Mustang Mach-E is supposed to be coming to Australia next year.

It's a really big car from the outside. I don't know the measurements, but to look at from the outside, it feels like it has a much, much bigger footprint than any of the other cars I looked at. It's tall, too. But the long bonnet (hood) that's a homage to "proper" Mustangs takes up a lot of space without actually doing anything. You could fit a V8 in there if you wanted, I suppose.

Inside, in the driver's seat, it felt less roomy than any of the other cars. It felt narrow, and it didn't feel tall. It felt like I was supposed to feel "sporty", sitting in a hunched position. But it's a family SUV.

The materials didn't feel great. I've driven or been driven in other Fords recently, including an S-Max, an Escape and an Everest, and they felt solid and well-built and actually quite expensive. This didn't: it had the same tinny feel as the Kia.

In the back, it had the same foot problem as the EV6 - you couldn't get your feet under the driver's seat. There was a lot less knee room than the EV6 or Ioniq 5: it felt like there was less space than in my X3, which isn't what you expect from a large purpose-built EV.

But the biggest problem was the fake-coupe roofline. While the roof itself is still reasonably high, the rear doors are not. It's very hard to get in and out of the back seats without banging your head. Given that I'll be spending a lot of time driving my in-laws around, that alone would make it a no.

EQB

I've driven an EQA in Australia, and I liked it a lot, but it was just too small for my needs. I've also looked at a GLB, and I was impressed by the room and the comfort. And an EQB combines EQA mechanicals with a GLB body. So I thought it was well worth a look.

My biggest concern before I looked at it was the height of the floor. The EQA has a very high floor, which means that in the back seat, you sit with your knees a long way above your bum. It's quite uncomfortable, and it's a big difference from the GLA: they've put the batteries in the EQA's floor, and raised the floor without raising the seats or the roofline, so while the GLA is comfortable in the back, the EQA is not. I was worried that the EQB would have the same problem in comparison to the GLB.

The EQB floor is higher than the GLB's but not by much. And because the roof is so high, they've been able to raise the seats a bit. So in the second-row seats, you're really very comfortable. The second-row seats slide, and if you go all the way back, there's a lot of room. Getting in and out of these seats is easy.

Unlike most other non-Tesla EVs, the EQB has a third row of seats. With them up, the boot (trunk) is tiny. But, as long as you can convince the middle-row people to slide forward, there's decent room in both the second and third rows. Even I thought the third row was OK. With the third row folded down, the boot is absolutely massive - way bigger than any of the other cars I looked at. That's a big consideration for me. There's no frunk though.

In the driver's seat, you sit pretty high. My nephew, in the passenger seat, said he felt like he was sitting "on the car, not in it". But I liked that: it gave really excellent visibility, especially because the windows are large and very upright.

The interior was lovely - well built and beautifully designed. The infotainment was easy to use. My nephew liked the handwriting-recognition, as it allowed him to write "bumhead".

I really liked this car a lot.

ID.4 and Enyaq

Again, they're siblings, so I'll put them together.

The ID.4 looks quite small on videos and in pictures, but it's really quite big - at least the size of my X3 on the outside. The Skoda is the same size, even though it looks bigger in videos and pictures. The ID.4's looks shout "I'm a futuristic EV!", whereas people who are not car nuts wouldn't know the Enyaq was anything out of the ordinary: I quite liked that in the Skoda.

Both had really lovely materials - as good as the Merc. I know a lot of other VWs have had problematic interior materials recently, including the ID.3 and the new Golf. But these were both beautifully made and felt very solid. The Skoda was, I think, better than the VW in terms of perceived quality, though. Everything felt just right.

Room inside was about the same in the two cars. The Skoda felt roomier, even though the one I looked at had a black interior, and the VW I looked at was a pale brown inside. I think this was down to the windows, and possibly a bit more shoulder room - the VW seemed to slope inward a bit more. In the back, both had tons of space - as much as the Hyundai or the Merc. Getting in and out was easy too. And both had big boots - the Skoda's seemed slightly bigger. No frunks again.

In the back, there was loads of kneeroom, as you'd expect in a large purpose-built SUV EV. You could also slide your feet under the front seats, so you could really stretch out. The Skoda had a bit more headroom in the back than the VW, but both had more than enough.

The Skoda has proper buttons on the steering wheel. The VW has stupid touch pads. This would make me lean toward the Skoda. But also, I just liked the interior design of the Skoda more.

The Skoda was the one car I was able to test drive. It was not fast by EV standards, but I don't need something that is fast by EV standards. It was incredibly smooth and comfortable. At up to 60mph (I didn't go any faster), it was really quiet: there was very little road noise or wind noise. It was easy to manoeuvre, and it was very easy to drive smoothly.

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All in all, then, I thought the Hyundai was lovely, but I don't think it's worth signing up for the two-year waiting list. I strongly disliked the Kia and the Mustang. I really liked the Mercedes. And I thought the VW was good, but that it was eclipsed by the Skoda.

I still need to see what happens with Genesis, and I'd love to know whether Fisker is actually going to come to Australia. But in the absence of those two, I think it's worth waiting for either the Skoda or the Mercedes. When it comes to choosing between them, it would come down to pricing and trim levels: both were really good. Both will be significantly cheaper than the BMW iX3 that had been my front runner, and neither feels like it's worse than the BMW in any significant way.