Skoda Elroq first drive | All the EV you need?

Skoda has distilled everything this firm is renowned for into making the Elroq, and in the process has made one of the best electric SUVs. It might be Skoda’s most compact EV, but with its impressive interior space, it makes us question whether drivers will need anything bigger.

Overview

The Elroq is the smallest electric SUV to come from Skoda yet – or indeed the entire Volkswagen Group – but promises to deliver on space, value for money and usability.

Essentially, It serves as the electric equivalent to the Skoda Karoq and costs almost exactly the same as its combustion-powered equivalent.

With prices starting from £31,500, the Elroq represents stunning value next to smaller rivals, such as the Volvo EX30 and Peugeot E-2008. That said, it doesn’t have things easy, not least with the recent introduction of the impressive Kia EV3 and Renault Scenic E-Tech.

Skoda did a great job with its larger Enyaq, which remains one of the most popular electric company cars on the market. The same logic has been applied to the new Elroq, with a broad range of trims and versions available.

Three battery sizes – 52kWh, 59kWh and 77kWh – are available with various outputs, along with four trim levels.

Comfort and practicality

Skoda is proud to call the Elroq an electric equivalent of the Karoq, and without doubt that car’s greatest strength is its highly versatile and spacious interior. The good news is that the Elroq carries over much of the cleverness and is one of the roomiest cars in its class. 

Despite its fairly compact dimensions, the Elroq has a long wheelbase, which provides a roomy passenger area and a great feeling of space throughout the interior. This includes the clever use of materials and design elements – including a ‘floating’ centre console with lots of storage beneath.

The standard Elroq seats are fantastic, with ample support and cushioning. Broad adjustability to the seats and steering wheel should enable most drivers to find the right position. The driving seat height went down surprisingly low for an SUV, too. Heated seats are standard on all but the entry-level SE model.

Space for those sitting in the rear is also impressive, with a generous amount of headroom and legroom, even with a slightly sloped roofline. The Elroq is quite wide for an electric SUV, at just shy of 1.9m, so there should be room for three adults across the rear bench in relative comfort. The rear seats are quite flat, too, meaning even someone taller can occupy the centre rear seat. Two easily accessible Isofix sockets are also in the back, with plenty of space to fit even the chunkiest of child seats. 

The boot one of the largest of any compact SUV, at 470 litres, albeit slightly down on that of a Karoq. The Elroq also loses the Karoq’s sliding and adjustable rear seat bench.

But the Elroq performs better for storage, with a generous amount in the front courtesy of large storage bins and its floating centre console, which has plenty of storage spaces both within it and also underneath. Handy features include a parcel shelf that can be placed at two different levels to essentially split up the available space.

Safety and technology

At the time of writing, the Elroq has yet to be assessed for its safety by Euro NCAP, but we have few doubts that it would perform below par. That’s because every Skoda currently on sale already has a five-star safety rating, and we don’t expect the Elroq to perform any differently. 

Standard features include a reversing camera, blind spot detection, lane assist and traffic sign recognition, though it is disappointing that you have to upgrade two trim levels to the Edition to get adaptive cruise control. Especially when it’s standard on the Kia EV3. 

Remote park assist is a new feature for the Elroq, which through the MySkoda app enables you to park the car or manoeuvre it with your smartphone. It’s ideal if you return to your car to find another vehicle parked so close you can’t get in, or if you have a tight garage, but it’s an expensive optional extra that’s only available as part of the £5,200 ‘Maxx’ package.

On the technology front, the Elroq’s cabin broadly mirrors that of the more expensive Enyaq with a simplistic layout that’s centred around its 13-inch infotainment touchscreen. The system has had a recent software update to include new configurable shortcut buttons to turn off the, often-irritating, speed sign recognition and to adjust the climate control.

The screen is generally easy to use but has an occasional lag on it. The shortcut buttons are also small and quite fiddly to operate on the move.

Other noteworthy technology on the Elroq includes a clever augmented-reality satellite navigation that can display ‘live’ navigation arrows to help you take the correct turn. The Elroq also makes it easier for drivers to locate chargers in both the car’s satellite navigation and also through the MySkoda app.

Drivability and range

Kicking off the line-up is the Elroq 50, which uses a 52kWh battery (usable) and electric motor producing 170PS and 310Nm. It has a range of 232 miles and is able to accelerate from 0-62mph in nine seconds. We believe it provides more than enough pace for most drivers, although a real-world achievement of 180 miles should be expected. It’s worth noting the ’50’ is only available on the entry-level SE trim level, and is what enables the Elroq’s low starting price, yet is expected to make up just 5% of Elroq sales.

If you want a touch more performance and range, the 60 is predicted to be the best-seller. We haven’t been able to test this version yet, though it uses a larger 59kWh battery, and puts out 204PS with same torque as the other model. It drops the 0-62mph time to 8.0 seconds and adds around 30 miles to the range, with a claimed 260 miles. We’d expect at least 200 miles in reality.

At the top of the line-up is the Elroq 85, the model to choose if you want the most range as it can travel up to an impressive 360 miles (WLTP) from a charge. It also packs a significantly more powerful motor with 286PS and 545Nm. This drops the 0-62mph to just 6.6 seconds and raises the top speed to 111mph – other Elroqs are capped to 99mph.

A heat pump, which helps to maximise the range of an electric car, is an £1,100 option across all versions.

The Elroq is also one of the fastest-charging cars in its class, with DC rapid charging speeds up to 175kW, or slightly less on models fitted with a smaller battery. Regardless, every version can charge from 10% to 80% in less than half an hour. Plugged in with a 7kW charger (such as a home wall box), it will take between eight hours for the small battery and 12 hours for the largest battery. 

We’ve liked the way the larger Enyaq drives for some time and that’s now been distilled into the Elroq, and brilliantly so. It’s one of the best cars to drive in its class with a great ride and handling balance.

For utmost comfort, models with Skoda’s Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) – a £650 option – offer the smoothest ride. Without DCC, the Elroq is still comfortable but has a slight harshness to it that models with the optional suspension iron out. 

The handling is smooth and predictable and just right for a car like this. That said, it does enable more enjoyment if you get your foot down, with the steering weighting up nicely in sport mode and – in the case of the 85 – if you boot it out of a corner you can sense the rear bias to it. We rather like the way the Elroq drives, and the extra power of the 85 is welcome on more spirited driving. That said, we think even the standard 50 model feels quick enough in most applications – it’s only if you need to overtake something quickly that it can feel a bit sluggish.

Company car tax and running costs

The Elroq enters the market with a compelling offer for fleets and company car drivers by providing low running costs and attractive p11d values. Quite a lot of features are optional, however, so a high-spec Elroq might cost more than you think.

At the entry-level, the Elroq 50 SE has a running cost of 34p per mile over a four-year (80,000-mile) cycle. This is paired with attractive benefit-in-kind tax of around £11 per month for a 20% taxpayer.

The Elroq 60 SE L is likely to appeal to more company car drivers thanks to its extended range and higher specification. There’s only a small uplift in running costs for this version, at 35p per mile. Across the key fleet models, the Elroq sits as a cheaper proposition than the popular Hyundai Kona electric. It can’t quite match the 33ppm running costs of the new Kia EV3, however.