(Very) soon to be Enyaq owner / driver

[RichR]

I wrote a long post on here a couple of years ago, based on the VW technical information for the heat pump system in the MEB platform. In summary though:

If you mainly do journeys under 30 minutes, it's maybe not worth it. If however you do longer journeys, especially when it's cold, then it is.

It scavenges heat from the motor and battery, as well as the outside air and uses that to provide heat to the cabin. Without it you're relying on essentially a fan heater/hairdryer type of heater which uses a lot of power (potentially up to 10kW, with the aircon compressor going too., eg demist). The heat pump system doesn't have a separate compressor for aircon- it's all in one. Generally it draws about 4kW when flat out heat and drying. However - this is reliant on there being sufficient heat available from the motor and battery, which requires 15-20 minutes of driving at a reasonable pace. Heat pump equipped Enyaqs also have the resistive heater, so you still get heat instantly even without it - it's just that once there is heat available, it'll stop using that.

With or without it though, it's worth noting that the Enyaq is a reasonably well insulated car (especially if your spec includes the acoustic glass side windows). So if you have your climate control set to auto, and no more that 7-8C different from outside, once it's up or down to the temperature you want, it'll stay there without the climate control having to work too hard. This is why it's worth pre-heating before you set off if you can. Also don't turn aircon off - it doesn't really impact range that much, and without it you're going to get steamed up windows and mould if you get into the car with a wet coat... I just leave mine on 19C full auto, and very rarely change it. Just let the car deal with what fan speed, whether it needs to dry, heat or cool as it need - it's quite tailored at saving power where it can.

[AdvocateUK]

Thanks fella that’s a very informative post