Skoda Elroq review

You can think of the Elroq as a slightly shorter and more affordable version of the popular Skoda Enyaq. Skoda hasn’t messed around – it wanted to give the Elroq the most spacious cabin possible, so the Elroq actually shares its wheelbase with the bigger Enyaq. The Elroq is 4.48m long – 20cm shorter than the Enyaq – but the vast majority of the shrinkage has come from the boot. Don't expect a tiny luggage space, though, as we'll discover.

Inside, the Elroq is typical Skoda. You get a large 13-inch infotainment screen and small five-inch digital dashboard, but it's neat touches such as a cloth-lined dashboard and optional orange seatbelts that make the Elroq's interior feel warm and homely. The long wheelbase might sound like engineering guff, but the reality is that back-seat passengers get class-leading amounts of space to stretch out, while the 470-litre boot is big and packed with cubby holes and neat compartments – we love the net under the parcel shelf which is perfect for holding the charging cable.

On the outside, Skoda's thrown away its traditional winged arrow badge and instead simply stuck its name on the bonnet above a bold new front-end, with a wide stretch of black plastic behind which sit the sensors for the driver assistance systems. Skoda calls this the 'tech deck', but it serves another purpose – making the Elroq look far more modern than the rest of Skoda's range. Well, apart from the recently facelifted Enyaq. The back end of the Elroq is pure Enyaq; we wouldn't have said no to a little bit more diversification.

The Elroq joins the Kia EV3 at the very top of the class for driving comfort. The Skoda irons out bumps really well and just rides properly, settling down quickly over hitting a pothole, rather than lurching around for 10 minutes as you'll find some other EVs doing. Sure, the Elroq is still a bit of a porker at 2.1 tonnes for the big 77kWh battery version, but unless you drive it on the door handles it never feels that heavy.

You'll get about 300 miles out of the 77kWh battery '85' version in the real world (Skoda claims 360 miles), and the 286hp rear-wheel-drive motor setup in that model is pretty punchy. The entry-level '50' version confusingly uses a 52kWh battery that's good for 230 miles on paper (expect under 200 miles in the real world), while the 60 model (with a 59kWh battery…) will do 260 miles – an achievable figure, if our time with the car is anything to go by.

Confusing numbers aside, it's one of the very best all-round family EVs on the market, combining space, technology, comfort and driving range.

The Elroq's cabin is mostly lifted wholesale from the bigger Enyaq, and that's no bad thing. It's spacious, easy to use and has just the right amount of technology, with easy ways to turn off most of the annoying bongs you get from the driver assistance systems.

Depending on which interior 'suite' you pick, you'll get a dashboard covered in cloth or pleasingly soft artificial leather made from recycled plastic. Our Edition test model even had what felt like denim on the dashboard. There's a host of colour options too, including some blue-greys and a more traditional black setup in top-spec Sportline models.

Whichever version you pick, your Elroq's dashboard is dominated by a large 13-inch infotainment system running the latest version of Volkswagen Group's software, which is pleasingly quick to respond and bug-free in our testing. It has wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, and also includes some handy apps including one which will let you pay for car parks without leaving the comfort of your Elroq. A tap on a shortcut icon at the top of the screen will turn off the speed-limit warning chime, but sadly you're forced to use touchscreen controls to adjust the temperature. At least they're always visible at the bottom of the screen regardless of which menu you're in.

Both the shortcut icons at the top of the screen, and the home menu itself, are customisable, meaning you can put your regularly used functions within easy reach.

The small five-inch digital driver's display is clear and easy to read, and the optional head-up display is vast, colourful and uses augmented reality to show you when you're straying out of your lane. 

A single wireless charging pad is also present on higher spec models – it's ventilated and can fast-charge at 15W. A pair of 45W USB-Cs is also on hand if you want to really bump up your phone’s charge before your next stop. There are also options to upgrade the stereo to a thumping Canton system, while memory seats and adjustable lumbar support are all available as options, which can easily push the price of the Elroq north of £40,000 and into luxury car tax territory.

We'd stick with the mid-range SE L or Edition trim levels. These add nice-to-haves like heated seats and a heated steering wheel, and they're available with the 60 or 85 batteries. Entry-level SE trim is limited to the smallest 52kWh battery. Edition is actually very well equipped, with keyless entry and the Travel Assist functionality that gives the Elroq a dose of self-driving ability – and the various warnings and bongs aren't very annoying, surprisingly.

In keeping with Skoda tradition, the Elroq's about as practical as Mary Poppins on an IKEA binge. There are plenty of cubby spaces dotted about the cabin – including space for two phones under the dash, a versatile central storage bin and extra storage beneath the centre console – and the door bins are generously sized. In short, you won't find yourself struggling to hide Haribo in the cabin.

Back-seat passengers get loads of headroom and kneeroom, although foot room under the driver's seat can get a bit tight if your chauffeur likes to have their seat as low as it'll go. There's okay space width-wise for a middle passenger, and the doors open nice and wide so child-seat fitting isn't a problem, helped by easy-to-find Isofix points nestled behind flip-down covers. There's a third set of Isofix points on the front passenger seat, so you can gaze at your little darling next to you at a set of traffic lights.

It's a little mean that Skoda doesn't line the rear doorbins with felt, considering it gives you the fluffy treatment up front. And we'd ideally like a frunk for under-bonnet cable storage. We're definitely nit-picking – the Elroq is brilliantly practical.

The 470-litre boot is a decent shape and size, exactly matching the Kia EV3 and Ford Explorer's load capacity. Skoda’s invented a new ‘simply clever’ item – a strong net under the parcel shelf which can hold 3kg, and is designed so you don't need to empty your boot to access the cable if you hide it under the boot floor (where there is a space for it). The parcel shelf itself is adjustable, and can be dropped down to form a shelf in the middle of the boot. And there's a useful shelf on the left-hand side that's perfect for small, easy-to-lose items. Hit the options list and Skoda will sell you more handy nets than a North Sea fisherman.

As on the Enyaq, the traditional Skoda ice scraper is tucked into the left-hand-side of the bootlid, and there’s an umbrella stowed in the driver’s door, and both are now made of more sustainable plastics. You'll pull the bootlid down with a little tab in the middle, which feels a little flimsy to our ham-fisted fingers.

The Elroq comes with four battery sizes, with the smallest being reserved for entry-level cars and the biggest only featuring on the Elroq vRS performance model. Pick the smallest 52kWh battery and you'll get a 230-mile claimed range, while the 59kWh battery in the 60 models returns up to 265 miles. In our time with the Elroq, we managed around 4 miles per kWh, equating to 236 miles from a full charge. We saw around 3.5 miles per kWh on the motorway, and more than 4.5mi/kWh on a steady cruise with the air conditioning turned off.

Upgrading to the 77kWh battery and its 350-mile range – available on Edition and SportLine models – costs about £4,000, so it's worth considering if the extra range it brings is worth that jump. If you do a lot of long journeys, it might be worthwhile, but if you don't and can charge at home then we'd stick with the 60 battery.

All can charge from 10% to 80% in under 28 minutes, with fast charging of 175kW on top-spec models. A heat pump is optional on some higher spec models, and it'll set you back about £1,100 if you want to maximise range in seriously cold weather.

Performance varies depending on which battery you pick. The 52kWh battery model (called the Elroq 50) has 170hp; step up to the Elroq 60 with its 59kWh battery and you get a 204hp motor. Top-spec Elroq 85 models get a 286hp motor, while the sporty Elroq vRS turns up the wick to 340hp.

Zero-to-62mph takes just 5.2 seconds for the vRS, but even the 204hp Elroq 60 feels very quick up to motorway speeds. Its 7.7-second 0-62mph time is about half a second quicker than the Enyaq with the same motor, and you can feel that difference if you were to drive them back-to-back.

The Elroq immediately impresses by being comfortable and easy to drive. There are no nasty surprises with sharp brake pedals or poor visibility – this is a car that's been honed to drive much like its comfy Enyaq sibling. The throttle modulation is a bit more gradual than the mechanically similar Ford Explorer, which has an accelerator pedal that feels like an on/off switch.

Most impressive is the way the Elroq's 2.1-tonne mass doesn't upset the suspension or send sharp jolts to your backside over bumpy roads. Nor does it float unnervingly over dips and bumps – it just drives like a normal combustion-engined car weighing 500kg less. The ride quality is better on smaller wheels, with the extra tyre sidewall giving some lovely squidge over bumps; the biggest alloy wheels make the ride a tad bitty.

The steering is light but direct, and in our early Elroq 85 test car when we drove it abroad, acceleration out of corners is impressively strong. 

We tried a car with the optional dynamic chassis control (only available on SportLine models), which lets you alter the suspension firmness on the move, but we wouldn't bother – the normal suspension setup is perfectly comfortable, and it's not the sort of car that you'll be using to chase Porsche 911s down a twisty road. That said, you can use the steering-wheel mounted paddles to adjust the regenerative braking effect, although it's a shame there's no one-pedal driving mode like in the Kia EV3.