Skoda has set two world records with one attempt by drifting the new Electric Enyaq iV VRS SUV for 4.568 miles on ice thereby setting the record for Longest Continuous Vehicle Drift on Ice and also the Longest Continuous Vehicle Drift on Ice by an EV. The previous record was only 3.872 miles and was set in China in 2022.

The remarkable feat took 15 minutes to complete and was accomplished in sub-zero temperatures on a frozen Lake Stortjärnen, located in Krokom, Sweden, on Thursday, January 19, 2023. The feat was accomplished by Richard Meaden in front of a Guinness World Record adjudicator and international drifting judge David Kalas as witnesses.

The vehicle was able to drift around the circle created for it 39 times in the 15 minutes and 58 seconds it took to set the records. It was able to reach speeds of 30.25 mph at its height and 19.66 mph at its slowest point. Not exactly a speed demon but slow and steady won these records.

The Enyaq sits on the same MEB platform as its cousins the VW ID.4 and Audi Q4 e-tron. The Enyaq iV vRS is then the second all-electric Skoda to wear the vRS badge, which means it's got some extra juice. It makes about 295 horsepower and 338 lb-ft of torque which is good for propelling the vehicle from 0-60 mph in 6.5 seconds thanks to the 77kWh battery and twin electric motor setup.

The car was completely stock besides the rubber. It sat on 20-inch alloy wheels sitting on Michelin Däckproffsen 'event tires' 245/35-R20 tires on the front which had 600 5 mm studs and Nokian Hakkapelitta 255/45-R20 tires fitted on the rear wheels with 300 2 mm studs across the tire surface. The studs were used to help with traction on the tractionless surface of the frozen lake.

This is actually the second record that Meaden and Skoda have, with the first going back to 2011. With that one, the British driver set a new Southern Californian Timing Association (SCTA) Land Speed Record for a 2.0-liter forced induction production car of 227.080 mph. He piloted a Skoda Octavia vRS during the run which was set at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

We've seen similar feats attempted and accomplished by other manufacturers in the past. In 2020, A Porsche Taycan broke the world record for Longest Drift In An Electric Vehicle, and just a couple of years before that, BMW set the record for the World's Longest Drift in an M5. That second one took an astounding 8 hours to accomplish and broke one held previously by a Toyota GT86. You have to love when automakers get competitive.