Skoda Elroq - long-term review

Unless you live under a rock (or on one, Tristan da Cunha perhaps), you’ll have noticed that Ferrari’s first fully electric car, the Luce, has been, erm, ‘divisive’. For many, Top Gear readers included no doubt, an electric Ferrari is a no-go on principle. What was it Enzo said, amongst his many pithy comments… when you buy a Ferrari you’re buying the engine, the rest you get for free? It’s part of the myth, and underlines Maranello’s fealty to internal combustion.

But all this nonsense online about him spinning in his grave? Do me a favour. He was a pragmatic businessman who liked selling cars and making money. Electric is clearly the direction of travel right now, and Ferrari is an engineering company and thought leader. Of course it should be doing an electric car. There’s also little point in replicating an existing model, so why not explore new market territory, ie: a versatile five-seater?

That’ll bring in new clients, and by commissioning LoveFrom – headed by Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson – to handle exterior and interior design, there’s a palpable Silicon Valley tech bro vibe (although neither of them remotely resembles that particular stereotype). Sure, so the Luce looks like no Ferrari you’ve ever seen, and it’s fascinating in execution rather than old-school beautiful. It feels like the future.

It also deepens the debate about what an EV should be, whether it’s OK for it to be a large tech appliance and to hell with all the stuff that traditionally defines our love of cars. Which brings me on to the Elroq vRS. My time with it is almost up, but more on that in the final report. What’s just occurred to me is that it’s kind of a 50 per cent Ferrari Luce (well, with one-third of the power). TG’s is even a sort of rosso corsa colour. Yes, it has a touchscreen, the item that Jony Ive is adamant has no place in a car, but it’s the best evolution of the clunky VW Group system.

Thankfully, Skoda has seen fit to include a row of physical keys, including one that brings up the ADAS menu and another for climate; one touch on those, then two presses on the screen to eliminate the speed limit warning and lane departure, or the same to increase or more likely reduce the cabin temp. Apple CarPlay is usually connected and has only failed to do so once (most cars glitch on this more frequently, in my experience).

Other than that, interactions are limited to flicking between BBC 6 Music and Radio 4, with occasional forays to Absolute 80s and 90s. I’m a creature of habit. Most of us are. Which raises the eternal question about how much of all this extended functionality we really need… another thing the Ferrari Luce addresses by reining it all in, in favour of off-the-chart materials excellence.

So the Skoda is fit for purpose. Well, mostly. Its boot is an odd shape, the floor is too high, and the ‘virtual pedal’ thing under the rear bumper incredibly fickle. This is another over-thought ‘convenience’ feature. Sure, I like a button that closes the tail-gate automatically, but the foot-wavy thing, not so much. The Elroq’s tail-gate seems to have a mind of its own, and has clouted me on the head on several occasions.

Rogue robot intelligence has taken all sorts of forms in films and literature. But a possessed Skoda is a new one on me.