Motoring with Joe Rayfus: We maybe reaching Peaq affordability with Škoda’s new electric offerings

There's a question I get asked more than any other. Not "what's the best car you've ever driven?", or even "is now a good time to go electric?"; but something far more down to earth, "when are these electric cars going to be actually affordable?"

For years my honest answer was a shrug and a "give it time." The truth is that affordable electric family cars have been quietly creeping up on us for a while now. But last week in Wicklow, Škoda made the point impossible to ignore, pulling the covers off not one but two all-electric SUVs - the compact Epiq and the seven-seat Peaq.

Cards on the table straight away, I haven't driven either of them. Not a kilometre. First deliveries of both aren't due until January, so I'll save my proper verdicts for the day I get the keys. But between them, these two tell a story worth telling now.

Start with the Epiq, Škoda's smallest and, crucially, cheapest EV to date. From €24,559 including the SEAI grant and VRT rebate, it becomes the most affordable electric Škoda you can buy.

It's a compact SUV crossover, tidy on the outside and cleverly roomy on the inside, with a 475-litre boot among the biggest in its class.

There's a choice of two batteries: a 38.5kWh good for up to 275km, or a 55kWh stretching to a claimed 435km - with a 10 to 80 per cent top-up in around 24 minutes. You get four trims, your phone as a key, one-pedal driving, vehicle-to-load and vehicle-to-home tech, and, mercifully, real physical buttons inside.

If the Epiq is the everyman EV, the Peaq is the family workhorse. This is a proper seven-seat, all-electric SUV, and here the story is range and value.

Prices start at €58,150, which sounds a lot until you go and price up its seven-seat electric rivals and realise the Peaq undercuts the two Korean offerings by the guts of twenty grand. There are two battery sizes: a 63kWh (badged the '60') good for up to 452km, and a 91kWh in two flavours, the '90', which will do a genuinely long-legged 637km, and the all-wheel-drive '90x' at up to 597km. Two trims, Selection and Sportline. A dealer roadshow rolls out in November, with the first cars landing in January.

Now, I'll be honest with you, the Epiq isn't quite the first reasonably priced family EV to reach an Irish driveway; that ship sailed a little while ago.

But together, these two might be the clearest sign yet of where things are headed.

When a mainstream, trusted brand like Škoda can hand you a family EV from twenty-four grand at one end and a seven-seater that undercuts its rivals by a small fortune at the other, the whole argument shifts. Affordable electric motoring is no longer a promise, or a thing reserved for early adopters with deep pockets. It's just… here.

I can't yet tell you how either of them drives, how they settle on our cratered back roads or whether those range figures hold up on a wet motorway in February. That all comes later, and I'll report back honestly when it does. But the direction of travel is clear, and for once the news is good for the wallet.

Two cars, one message: the age of the affordable family EV is here. I can't wait to drive them.