Skoda Elroq review: Comfortable, spacious and well-priced small SUV

New small SUV borrows bits from the bigger Enyaq but wraps it up in a smart new design with plenty of clever family-friendly features plus a comfortable drive. The Skoda Enyaq has been a big success for the Czech company – and rightly so. Skoda’s first EV offers the familiar Skoda theme of more for less, whether that’s equipment or, more typically, space. And it’s the same with the Skoda Elroq – a slightly smaller SUV, with an emphasis on slightly. It uses much of the same technology as the Enyaq and has plenty of space inside too. We suspect one of the reasons the Enyaq had a bit of a facelift recently was to distance it from the fresher, cheaper and probably more appealing Elroq.

If you value comfort and ease of use, the Elroq scores highly. But it also adds a dash of new Skoda style with the brand’s Modern Solid design language. Inside there’s plenty of space for a growing family, with the expected Simply Clever features Skoda is known for – and that’s not just an umbrella in the door. There’s storage aplenty in a cabin that’s well made and features a nice fabric strip around the cabin that warms things up a treat.

That comfort extends to the way the Elroq drives. It rides nicely, even on broken UK roads, while performance is good and EV range is par for the course. All-in-all, it’s worthy of recommendation. We drove the Elroq around the south of England on all types of roads, from broken country lanes to town streets and faster motorways and dual carriageways. We drove with five people on board and – as Skoda loves dogs – we put a dog in the back, too.

Independent rating: 9/10. Battery, range, charging, performance and drive. You’re not short of choice with an Elroq, with three battery sizes and four trim levels. The entry-level Elroq SE gets a 55kWh battery with a range of up to 230 miles – all for £31,500. Move up to the SE L and you can have a larger 63kWh battery that enables the Elroq to go a maximum of 250 miles on a full charge. That same battery is also available in both Edition and SportLine trim (you can probably guess that SportLine gives you some racier accoutrements), while there’s also the option of an 82kWh battery that promises a maximum range of 360 miles.

The fastest charging speeds range from 145kW for the 55kWh battery with the potential for a 10 to 80 per cent charge time of 25 minutes, through 165kW for the 63kWh battery (10 to 80 per cent in 24 minutes) and 175kW for the 82kWh battery (10 to 80 per cent in 28 minutes). The biggest battery may be the weightiest, but it brings performance benefits with a 0-62mph time of just 6.6 seconds. That rises to eight and nine seconds for the 63kWh and 55kWh batteries.

Not that you’ll want to drive the Elroq like a sports car, even if you opt for SportLine trim. This is a car that majors on comfort, with a relaxed gait that pays dividends in everyday driving on a variety of road surfaces. The steering feels reactive enough, and despite the softer setup, body control is good so you won’t be wallowing through corners. As with all EVs, the Elroq is quiet, too – giving the car the feeling of a little limo, especially with the amount of space on board.

Interior, practicality and boot space. Space is the Elroq’s trump card. There’s loads of space in the back – so much so that Skoda dealers might have trouble getting Enyaq buyers away from the Elroq. The rear doors open wide for easy access or to make it easy to fit a child into their restraint, while there’s good shoulder and head space in the back, plus handy cubbies and pockets on the back of the front seats for your mobile phones. You can also get drinks holders in a special pod on the floor, assuming you don’t need to carry a third person in the back.

It’s the same up front with loads of space, plenty of places to put your bits and pieces, and good visibility thanks to larger than average door mirrors. Material used across the dash warms things up inside and adds to the feeling of quality, while lots of the materials used are sustainable. Swing open the boot door and there’s a huge 470 litre space, which can be extended to 1,580 litres. Look up at the boot door and you’ll find a handy ice scraper in the left hand side, while on some models there’s a net under the luggage shelf to store your charging cables. That makes things much easier than hiding them under the boot floor if you’ve got luggage on board.

And that parcel shelf? It can sit in two positions, but best of all you can slide it out of the way behind the back seats rather than have to take it out and leave it somewhere. Technology, stereo and infotainment. There’s a strong tech story to the Elroq, too, not just with the 13-inch touchscreen that’s easier to use than many others in the Volkswagen Group family. There’s a handy app that lets you control many functions remotely, including pre-heating or cooling the car and self-parking. The LED lights can feature matrix-beam technology for better lighting without blinding on comers. There’s a host of driver assistance and safety features, a head-up display, digital driver display, adjustable ambient lighting and a voice assistant – called Laura – that uses AI to help answer your questions.