Car of the Year 2025: Skoda Elroq
The new all-electric Skoda Elroq SUV is the Auto Express Car of the Year for 2025
It’s always tough to choose an overall winner for our Car of the Year prize, but 2025 caused longer debates among the Auto Express judging team than most. There were several stars we could have chosen this year; a pair of deeply desirable Renaults in the form of the retro Renault 4 and Renault 5, plus the cheerful and keenly priced Fiat Grande Panda, were all strongly in the running during our deliberations.
In the end, however, we chose the car which, try as we might, we struggled to find any obvious faults with – and that all-round strength sealed its position: the Auto Express New Car of the Year winner for 2025 is the Skoda Elroq.
Skoda has regularly bagged various category wins at our annual awards, but this is the first time that the Czech brand has scooped the overall award since the Octavia took the prize in 2020. And if the Octavia has long been the car that has played more strongly to the brand’s virtues than any other model in its line-up, the Elroq has now inherited the baton from its rangemate for the all-electric age.
Everything we’ve come to expect and love from a Skoda is right here, with value for money at the forefront of everything it does. This is an electric car that starts from not much over £30,000, yet feels like a car that’s sized a class above most alternatives at that price point. Step up the trim levels and models with more range become available; as many as 355 miles (WLTP) are on offer, but still at competitive prices.
Yet without genuine ability elsewhere, value for money isn’t enough. The good news for the Elroq is that there’s loads more to recommend. The cabin is both beautifully finished and incredibly spacious, making it an ideal family car, and everyone aboard will approve of its comfort, refinement and safety, too. Skoda’s in-car tech is better than ever, while equipment levels are generous throughout. Then there are the powertrains, which offer plenty of smoothness and performance – there’s even a hot vRS option, too.
If Skoda wanted a model to showcase what its brand is all about, the Elroq shouts those qualities louder than any other. It’s as close to faultless as a family car can be, and that’s why it’s a deserving winner of our 2025 Car of the Year Award.
“Winning Car of the Year means a lot to all of us at Skoda. I’m grateful for this recognition of the hard work, creativity, and care that goes into building a car we’re truly proud of. We set out to create a car that people would love to drive on their daily explorations. To see it connect with drivers and experts alike is incredibly rewarding." - Klaus Zellmer, Skoda CEO.
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See all the winners...
Click on the gallery below to see all the winners of our 2025 New Car Awards...
You can find all the information on our New Car Awards 2025 winners and the reasons why we chose them on the pages below. Just follow the links to read more…
New Car Awards 2025: the winners
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For the full New Car Awards experience, make sure you pick up a copy of our special 2025 New Car Awards collectors' edition of the Auto Express magazine, which will be available in shops from July 2nd.
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