Is a heat pump a must?

[snalbansed]

Anecdotally from hanging around here for a year or so, it would seem that the cars with the heat pump seem to have problems with leaks etc more often, and when they do the Skoda service offer in the UK is woefully inadequate - very few places have the equipment and skills to repair them.

[ricky10]

Some models of the Tesla are extremely efficient. It depends on battery chemistry and BMS.

I think it is the standard range model 3 that is kind of king of efficiency. So it is not ideal to compare two cars with wildly different efficiency.

If you have a M3 standard range with heat pump and one without for comparison over long term journeys, then that’s more indicative.

As previously stated, it depend on journeys. The heat pump saves a significant amount of energy when compared with using just heater. I saw this in my cars consumption when I put the A/C on and off and require heating to the cabin.

Anyway the point is, it is very circumstantial and personally I don’t think it is worth £1k as option. Certainly not a must have. But if it is standard piece of kit then no argument.

And if I am in the market for a used Enyaq, would I look for one with heat pump - probably yes as it doesn’t seem to make a difference in used price so might as well have th option.

I also think the used car market don’t have many cars that have heat pump is possible due to them being lease dumped cars so they are all low spec non-option cars. If you leasing you don’t really care about those options and just want the car at lowest cost base.

[Panagon]

I have had two cars with a heat pump and my present Enyaq does not have one. If you set the cabin temperature appropriately, cooler in winter, warmer in summer, to match your clothing I reckon there is not much to gain (in the UK anyway). Some range loss may happen but it's going to be lost in the general variation of external temperatures.

There is a lot of fuss about the amount of energy climate control takes. I once saw a journalist get in a cold car, turn on climate control, and look aghast at the amount of energy it was taking. This completely forgetting that,once up to temperature, climate control is ticking over at a much lower rate.