Skoda Elroq review – Skoda EV gets so much right | Drive | @autocarindia1
[Music] It’s a beautiful day in Germany today and with us is the Scoda Lrock. Now, if you remember, we were in the Czech Republic last year for this car’s unveil, but today it’s all about driving. So, I’m going to get straight inside, but I promise I will stop and show you all around outside and inside, but driving first. [Music] The LRO is Scoda’s smallest SUV currently on sale and has multiple powertrain options. Right. So, the LRO comes in three powertrain versions. You’ve got the 50, the 60, and the 85. Now, that roughly translates to the battery capacity, and the one we have here is the 85. It actually has a 77 kWh battery. range uh is 560 km and power 285 horsepower. So uh that’s pretty quick. In fact, the 0 to 100 time is 6.6 seconds. So uh quick enough for a nice small little family SUV. Now does it feel that quick? Well, frankly, no. And that’s not a complaint really because throttle calibration is really nice. you can potter around smoothly like right now like I am doing uh in this uh you know narrower streets uh should you want to get a move on things open out say for now put your foot down and off you go and what’s nice is that it doesn’t really just dump all of the power straight in. Uh there is a good amount of uh throttle calibration so it’s very progressive. you know what you’re doing and uh frankly if you ask me that’s really what you need today with uh EVs because sure they’re fun when the power comes in all in an instant but then it’s very one-dimensional after that and uh uh you know not really exciting. This one it doesn’t have the character of an ice an internal combustion engine of course but there is some amount of character uh to it. Now, this does sit below the Eniac in Scoda’s uh EV uh range in the electric range. Uh but it’s still quite large. In fact, it’s about uh 4.4 or 4.5 m. So, it is a large uh SUV in that sense. And uh in terms of the feel, you do feel its weight when you’re pushing it a little harder. But otherwise, it’s just right. In fact, uh it’s not that light uh typical steering that uh you know, sometimes you want that easy twirl with one hand, but when you’re in roads like this, you know, going through corners, you’ll like that little bit of weight from uh behind the steering. Now ride well wherever we’ve gone uh roads have been nice but like this on these small little uh manhole covers and a few uh ruts that that are right now in this village road. It seems typically European. So it’s got that little firmness about it but it damps things nicely. So really it’s not soft and plush but it’s got a nice measure of control to it. So, what’s it like out on highways? Now, highspeed stability is very good. We’re on the German autobanss unrestricted stretch. I’m doing about 170 and uh yeah, it’s just absolutely stable. Even over mild undulations, it tracks straight and through. Now, in terms of sound insulation, of course, yes, it is silent. I can pick up some wind noise coming from about uh the apillar there, but tire noise is well contained. In fact, right now we are on a coarse concrete surface which tends to get really noisy, but even now it’s doing a good job of muting all of that tire row and we are at around 180. [Music] Right. So, I did say we’d stop and take a look around at the car outside and in. And this looks like a very nice spot to stop. So, let me find a nice clearing. Now’s the time to take a look at all of the details. Now, this car, the LRO, was the first car that debuted Scoda’s new design language, uh, the modern solid design language, I think they call it. And one of the highlights for me at least was this bit, this black bit here. Scooter calls the tech deck. Now modern cars have a lot of cameras, radars, liars, and you’ve seen those odd black bulges around. Everything is hidden behind this. So you’ve got the camera here to see in terms of the parking camera, but you’ve also got the other ADAS equipment behind this black panel. Uh that’s the tech deck, and Scoda says it’s going to be across all of their cars. Now, the Bonnet 2, as you can see, this little indent here, typical of Skoda. So, some things change, some things remain the same, and I think it’s a nice blend. Uh, here on the corner, you’ve got a segmented DRLs and, uh, the headlights uh, down below and a little air inlets here to create uh, an air curtain, and that’s really for a efficiency. Very important, of course, on EVs. Now at the side, well here things are more or less similar to any other Scoda car. So while the front is quite different, if you looked at it from typically right here, this profile, uh you wouldn’t really think this is a brand new design language. Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? I don’t know. Maybe it’s not exciting enough for our market, but apparently works really well here in Europe. So that’s on the sides. Now, if we move over to the rear here too, typically Skoda, you’ll see a lot of familiar elements uh I’m sure especially in the tail lamp treatment uh here and uh the way they stack uh the lines on the boot and of course you’ve got the Scoda lettering here. Now, since we’re here at the rear, let’s take a look inside at the boot space. Yeah, it’s a 470 L boot. And one thing I have to point out, which is really, really clever is this. I really love this little net. It’s such a small thing, but uh charging cable can be stored up here. And uh typically you never really load your boot right up to the top. That little area up there is kind of wasted space. Really clever seeing Scoda use that. And of course, a lot of their simply clever bits you’ve got all around here. You’ve got storage trays. You’ve got um there’s another parcel tray here in this car. And I’m not quite sure what this is for though. So, and of course you’ve got a cargo net as well there too. So, uh yeah, that’s the rear and the insides of uh the boot at least of the the LRO. Let’s hop right into the cabin. So, space inside at the rear. This seat was set for me while I was driving. I’m 5’8 for reference. So, as you can see, there’s ample room uh really in terms of knee room and leg room. Uh head room too, more than a five finger sort of gap here. So lot of uh headroom as well. You do sit in a slightly uh sort of knees up position. Uh the battery does push the floor up, but what Scoda have done is they’ve created a small little ski ramps here. So it gives you uh some amount of under thigh support. So it isn’t all that uncomfortable. Now down here, this is another simply clever bit I really like. It’s a removable tray that you have here. So, if you want to seat a passenger, you can remove that. Else, you can have this here. Nice little storage uh down below. Armrest, you’ve got here some storage or cup holders as well and a tray for your mobile phone. And in terms of seats, I have to say uh they are really comfy. I’ve been driving for a while now. The front seat comfortable. This one too, nicely contoured uh to your back. And in fact, both the outer seats are neatly contoured. The center passenger though is not going to be all that happy. Right. So, here at the front, the Skoda steering wheel with those lovely nurled knobs here for volume and other controls. Feels really nice uh slick to use and they are also buttons that you can depress. So, uh that’s really nice to see as well. touchscreen really large 13-in and in fact quite contrasting to the rather tiny I think probably 4 in uh instrument panel uh that you have there I wish it were bigger and I wish it had dials as well in terms of a display storage of course there’s plenty of storage there’s two phone trays here wireless charging there’s a tray down here down here as well you’ve got a lot of storage this center armrest it’s got a small little cubby and then it’s really deep uh down below has got a little slot for keeping a tablet or a phone in place. So, lots of storage and of course door pockets too. Uh typically, again, Scoda always maximizes in terms of uh interior volume and storage space. Also, what’s nice to see is you do have physical buttons down below as well. So, while the touchscreen takes a lot of controls here, uh thankfully drive mode, it has its own separate button, something I always like to see because that’s what you want to use and change on the move. So, there is a button for that. climate uh you do have to press this button and pull up a menu. So that bit not so great. Uh but overall I think uh they’re trying to get a mix of buttons and touchscreen uh correct. [Music] So what’s this car like then? Frankly, it’s a really nice well sorted EV. It’s from Scod’s new obviously developments. In fact, it was the first car to carry the new modern design language as they call it and modern solid design language and yeah, it’s it looks nice. Uh it drives really nicely. Uh there’s really nothing significantly wrong about it. In fact, uh you know, maybe yes, the instrument panel a little too tiny, but that’s really very specific things. On the whole, it’s a lovely, lovely car. Will it come to India? Well, that’s the shame really because it has a very slim chance of making it to our market. Scod when it was unveiled, they did say that yes, they were looking into it, but they themselves admitted that uh the chances of it making it to India were slim and that comes down to really the way these EVs are built and it’s just going to make them too expensive for our market uh given what they offer. So yes, until Skodora figure out a perhaps uh maybe a cheaper version of of building this or perhaps making it in India, we’re not going to see it anytime soon. What do you think though? Should SCOD bring the LRO to India or perhaps something else? [Music]
Skoda’s global line-up is expanding with electric vehicles. Sergius Barretto samples the Elroq and feels it’s a model that should come to India.
Editor: Mohit Sharma
0:00 – Introduction
0:28 – Battery, range, performance
2:58 – Ride quality
3:27 – High speed stability
3:45 – Sound insulation
4:29 – Exterior design
6:21 – Boot space
7:10 – Rear seat space
8:29 – Interior design
10:03 – Verdict
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