Skoda Elroq review

Is the Skoda Elroq a good car?

Skoda looks like it’s onto another star in its range with the Elroq. The brand’s latest electric car is SUV-sized for hatchback money, and brings with it all of the things we appreciate from modern Skodas: it’s comfortable, refined, very spacious and keenly priced. The smart, well finished cabin feels posher than most of its rivals’, and Skoda’s tech is slick, too. If anything, the Elroq is so good that we see it creating a bit of a dilemma for Skoda: why would anybody need the larger Enyaq now?

How much does the Skoda Elroq cost?

For a long time now, Skoda has been managing to make the best of the hand it’s been dealt. With components so widely shared within the vast Volkswagen Group, the VW, Cupra, SEAT and even Audi brands are usually given their best shot at any tech – but even among such strongly competing brands, more often than not it’s Skoda that somehow comes up with the best car of the bunch. 

In years gone by, that would have been down to the Czech firm outdoing its fellow platform-sharers when it comes to value for money, but now Skoda is beating its supposedly posher brandmates at their own game, too. And with the new Elroq, it looks like Skoda has done it again. 

You only need to know the origin of the car’s odd name to get a pretty good handle on where the newcomer slots into Skoda’s range – and the wider market. Elroq is a portmanteau of Electric and Karoq, so this is a car pitched at the family SUV market. It also sits on the VW Group’s MEB platform (which underpins the majority of the group’s EVs), but it’s slightly longer and taller than the VW ID.3, and shorter than Skoda’s own Enyaq. 

But while the Enyaq starts at a smidge under £40,000, the Elroq, when fitted with a matching powertrain, costs £5,650 less. Go for the absolute base model, and the range starts from £31,500. But if you look further into those figures – and the rest of the Elroq’s on-paper specs – it’s hard to see what buyers will lose by going for the smaller model. 

The Elroq uses the same well proven MEB platform as the Enyaq, and several other models including the Cupra Born, Audi Q4 e-tron and the much larger VW ID. Buzz. The main competition are other highly rated, small family EVs like the Kia EV3, Hyundai Kona Electric and Renault Scenic.

The Skoda Elroq is offered in four trim levels – SE, SE L, Edition and SportLine – and with a choice of three motors, each paired with their own battery. The Elroq 50 with the headline £31,500 starting price offers up 168bhp and 310Nm, paired with a 52kWh battery for a range of 232 miles. 

The mid-range Elroq 60 starts from £33,350 and gets a 59kWh battery paired with a single motor that makes 201bhp – enough to get it from 0-62mph in eight seconds flat and up to 265 miles on a single charge, which we think is the sweet spot in terms of price and performance. 

Meanwhile the Elroq 85 range-topper is priced from £38,650, and offers up 282bhp and 545Nm – good for a 0-62mph time of 6.4 seconds – powered by a 77kWh battery for a range of up to 355 miles. 

Entry-level SE trim is available exclusively on the Elroq 50, and even the most basic model comes equipped with LED headlights, a 13-inch central touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, five-inch Virtual Cockpit driver’s display, height-adjustable boot floor, rear-view camera, cruise control and several other driver assistance features.

Upgrading to the Elroq 60 also means an upgrade to SE L trim, which adds heated front seats and a heated steering wheel, sat-nav, drive mode select, front parking sensors and preparation of a tow bar. It also unlocks the option of Lodge or Suite interior themes.

Next up is Edition specification, offered on the Elroq 60 and 85 models, that expands the kit list to include 19-inch alloy wheels, dark chrome exterior trim, acoustic side windows for better refinement, a wireless charging pad, additional USB-C charging ports in the rear, keyless entry and extra driver assistance systems like adaptive cruise control. 

As the name suggests, SportLine gives the Elroq a more dynamic look with 20-inch alloy wheels, gloss black detailing, new bumpers, matrix LED headlights and sports suspension that lowers the ride height by 15mm. Meanwhile the interior gets sports seats with suede and artificial leather upholstery, three-spoke steering wheel with paddles to adjust the regenerative braking, and a set of aluminium pedals. 

So what's the Elroq like on the road? Very impressive, it turns out. Approached as a family car, it scores highly across the board. Within a few metres of pulling away it immediately feels solid and substantial, and the suspension is well judged: compliant enough that it doesn’t jostle its occupants around as some rivals might, yet firm enough that it manages to keep its composure through the turns. 

Our car was equipped with optional 20-inch wheels, but we’d expect things to become even smoother with the SE L’s standard 19-inch rims. 

Light steering and a remarkably small turning circle of just 9.3 metres – which is less than a MINI Cooper’s – helps in town and when navigating tight carparks. On the motorway, we noticed a bit of wind noise coming from around the door mirrors, but were otherwise very impressed by the refinement.

Thanks to a long throttle pedal travel, it’s very easy to control that power precisely on the move, and you can drive the Elroq very smoothly. If we had one minor gripe, it’s the braking: the pedal feels soft initially as the brake regen is doing its work. 

Speaking of regen, we’d like paddles behind the steering wheel to adjust the regen on all Elroq models; as it stands, you have to splash out on the SportLine trim to get them. Instead, drivers have a simple choice of ‘D’ and ‘B’ drive modes, with the latter increasing the strength of the regen. Not by a huge amount mind you, and certainly not enough to deliver full one-pedal driving though, like you get in Kia and Hyundai’s EV. 

We’ve driven both the Elroq 50 and Elroq 85 so far. There may be a nearly 120bhp difference between them, but at no point did we feel the base model was lacking power. It delivers brisk acceleration and there’s still enough oomph left for overtaking on the motorway without burying your foot in the carpet.

The Elroq 85 meanwhile packs some serious punch; more than you’d expect an underassuming family car like this to be hiding. As soon as you hit the throttle, its e-motor delivers a whopping 545Nm of torque, that will put you back in your seat if you’re not fully prepared for it, and gets the Elroq up to motorway speeds quickly and effortlessly.

The entry-level Elroq 50 has a relatively small 55kWh battery (52kWh of which is usable) and Skoda says can provide up to 232 miles of range. That’s about the same as the more expensive, standard-range Kona Electric can manage, but the base EV3 and Scenic will do around 260 miles on a charge, officially. 

With a maximum charging speed of 145kW, a 10-80 per cent top up in the Elroq 50 takes 25 minutes from the right ultra-rapid charger. Alternatively, fully replenishing the battery via a standard 7.4kW home wallbox will take around seven hours. 

The mid-range Elroq 60 benefits from a bigger 63kWh (59kWh usable) battery that increases the range to around 250 miles. Plus it can hit 165kW, so charging from 10-80 per cent takes 24 minutes.

Finally, range-topping Elroq 85 models feature an even larger 82kWh battery (77kWh usable) that’s good for 360 miles on a single charge. Again, that’s slightly less than the equivalent EV3 or Scenic offers, but considerably more than a top-spec Kona Electric. As well as extra range, the Elroq 85 will peak at 175kW, but due to its larger battery, charging from 10-80 per cent will take 28 minutes.

A heat pump is a pricey £1,000 optional extra, but even without it the Elroq has proved to be fairly efficient during our testing. On mixed routes, we averaged an impressive 3.7 miles per kilowatt-hour in both the Elroq 60 and 85, translating into a real-world range of 218 and 285 miles, respectively. The former was in the UK with an outside temperature of roughly five degrees; in warmer weather, we have no doubt that the efficiency will improve significantly.

The Elroq is the first car to be designed fully according to Skoda‘s new ‘Modern Solid’ design philosophy, which gives the car a modern yet still quite robust and certainly very eye-catching look. It’s also the first model to carry the brand’s new family face – now also adopted by the Enyaq – but many other details are largely similar to its big brother, to the point that most people will be hard pressed to spot many differences. The new car’s shorter, stockier proportions, particularly from the side, are the only real giveaway.

Step inside and it’s all very familiar, too; apart from some subtly different interior trims, the cabin design is largely the same as the Enyaq’s, right down to the stubby gear selector on the floating centre console and the bank of large shortcut buttons across the dashboard. The interior feels well built, all the key touchpoints are solid and we like the different material choices you get with each interior theme. 

The standard ‘Loft’ theme covers the dashboard and other surfaces with a soft fabric like you’d find on some Scandinavian furniture. We’re big fans of the optional ‘Lodge’ design that adds light grey/black upholstery and bright orange seatbelts.

It’s a shame that the Elroq doesn't get the rotary multi-function climate control dials used by the latest Superb and Kodiaq, but the 13-inch infotainment system is one of the most intuitive out there – a far cry from the glitchy and confusing touchscreen system of earlier MEB-based cars. 

Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment

Every Elroq features a huge 13-inch touchscreen running Skoda’s latest infotainment system. The screen itself is crisp and the set-up is very responsive, with menus loading quickly. The homepage is customisable, so drivers can add widgets for their most used functions. Cabin temperature controls are found at the bottom of the screen, along with several shortcut buttons, plus even more at the top. It’s almost too busy, but better than having all those functions buried with various menus. 

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto feature as standard, while Skoda says an entertainment hub is coming soon, which will allow drivers to watch YouTube on the central screen while charging on the go.

The Elroq feels very roomy up front, thanks in part to the large amount of glass around the cabin, so visibility is great too. Meanwhile passengers in the back are spoiled for space. Head and knee room are both excellent; against the tape measure it’s pretty much a match to what you’ll get in the larger Enyaq. 

Like a lot of electric cars, the rear floor in the Elroq is high to accommodate the battery underneath. This can leave long-legged passengers without much under-thigh support, however Skoda’s simple yet effective solution is extending the seat bases to provide a little extra support. 

If you’ve got small children, there are two sets of ISOFIX mounting points in the back of the Elroq, which are covered by plastic tabs making them more easily accessible.

The 470-litre boot can’t match the Renault Scenic’s 545 litres, but should still be plenty big enough for small families, there’s underfloor storage for the charging cables, plus a load of smart little shelves and nooks to the side for holding smaller items in place

One of our favourite new ‘Simply Clever’ features on the Elroq is a storage net on the underside of the parcel shelf. It’s genius because you can easily access the charging cables when you’ve got a boot full of stuff blocking the underfloor storage where they go in most other EVs. A range of nets that can be fixed to various parts of the boot to hold things securely, plus a reversible boot floor, are part of an optional transport package.

The parcel shelf is also height-adjustable, creating a split-level arrangement, and can support up to 3kg. You can also stow the parcel shelf away when you need space for larger items, and there’s two large storage compartments on either side of the boot. 

Then there’s the now trademark Skoda umbrellas hidden in the front doors, and an ice scraper/tyre-tread depth gauge, which is stowed in the bootlid rather than its usual home in the fuel filler flap of internal combustion-powered Skodas. Our test car had some extra accessories too, including little rubbish bins in the door bins (around £18) and a handy 2-in-1 screen cleaner block (about £12). 

The Skoda Elroq hasn’t received a Euro NCAP crash safety rating yet, but we’d happily put money on it receiving a five-star rating considering that the Skoda Enyaq, and every other MEB platform car launched to date, has managed this. 

The amount of safety and driver assistance system that come as standard on the Elroq give us faith too, as every model includes cruise control, lane-keep assist, blind spot detection, emergency steering support as part of ‘Turn Assist’ and a front collision alert system with vehicle, pedestrian and cyclist detection. Higher-spec models also get predictive and adaptive cruise control. 

Obviously, the Elroq is too new to have been covered in our 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, however Skoda fared quite well. It had three cars – the Kodiaq, Karoq and Kamiq – feature on the list of top 50 best cars to own, although the brand only finished 23rd (out of 32) in the best car manufacturer rankings. Sister brand Cupra performed better, and managed to come 18th, however SEAT and Volkswagen finished in 24rd and 29th place, respectively.

Like all new Skodas, the Elroq comes with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty, which is pretty standard compared to the five years of coverage Hyundai offers, and the seven years you get with Kia or MG. 

Of course, extended warranties are available, currently starting from £300 to cover up to four years or 80,000 miles of ownership. A four-year/100,000-mile extended warranty costs £400, or you can pay £630 to get coverage for five years and 100,000 miles of ownership. 

Skoda Elroq alternatives

The Skoda Elroq competes in the already very busy, and constantly growing, segment of compact electric SUVs. But bearing in mind the amount of kit and the sheer amount of car for the money, it looks very strong against the competition. Take the excellent new Kia EV3, for example; its longest-range model can go 375 miles based on WLTP numbers – 20 miles more than the Skoda at its best – and it’s competitively priced, too, with that figure available from the Air trim at £35,995. 

But battery aside, the Elroq holds a narrow lead when it comes to comfort, refinement and handling, as well as having better in-car tech and much more space, too. Renault’s EV line-up is in fantastic form right now, however even that has a tough challenge to face; the Elroq is offering buyers Scenic size for Megane money. 

Potential buyers may also be cross-shopping the Elroq with the Hyundai Kona Electric and Volvo EX30, or perhaps the MINI Countryman Electric, with its funky interior and sense of fun. 

Skoda Elroq pictures

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