The 4.5 meter class
There seems to be a new subclass emerging in the land of the electric car. That class is just below the current fleet of electric crossovers and SUVs and includes electric SUVs that are about 4.5 meters long. An important newcomer in this area is the Skoda Elroq, which we can see as the electric equivalent of the Karoq.
Highlights
- Electric SUV under Enyaq
- Unveiling early 2024
- Competitor of Kia EV5 and Peugeot e-3008
When it comes to SUVs, there always seems to be a gap that car manufacturers are not yet exploiting. We saw this before with petrol models, such as a Volkswagen T-Roc placed next to a Tiguan and Mitsubishi’s Eclipse Cross placed under the Outlander. Things are no different in EV land. The large crossover is to date the most popular form for an EV. The Kia EV6 falls into that category, just like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Toyota bZ4X, the Volkswagen ID4 and the Ford Mustang Mach-E. They are all cars of about 4.65 to 4.75 meters long, which therefore have a lot of sales potential not only in Europe, but also elsewhere in the world.
We now seem to be on the eve of a new series of electric crossovers and SUVs, which will find their place just below the models mentioned. Please note: these are not cars from a completely different segment. After all, that already exists: the Kia Niro is clearly smaller than the EV6, the ID3 is smaller than the ID4, and so on. No, we are talking about cars that we could still characterize as ‘C-segmenter’ according to classic standards, but just slightly smaller and often slightly more SUV-like. Kia has already announced the EV5, the new Peugeot e-3008 is clearly shorter than the cars from ‘the EV6 class’ and then there is the Volkswagen Group, which is going to follow a similar path with Skoda.
Skoda Elroq (Illustration: Larson).
Modern Solid
It does this with the Elroq, an EV that is positioned just below the Enyaq. The Elroq is about 4.5 meters long, about 20 centimeters shorter than the Enyaq. The fact that it looks a bit chunkier is partly due to the squat carriage, but also due to the design. This borrows many elements from the Skoda Vision 7S concept car, with which the Czechs showed this new ‘Modern Solid’ style for the first time. Vertical elements play a major role in this, for example around the headlights. Compared to the Enyaq, the nose is much more recognizable as that of an EV. Where the Enyaq still has a huge fake grille, on the Elroq we only see a thin, black bar containing the sensors and cameras required for the assistance systems. The rear looks a little less Vision 7S-like, and gets – we think based on what we have seen so far – ‘simply’ horizontal rear lights. Yet here too it can be seen that Skoda opts for a sleeker, (even) more tidy style.
Family car
Although the Elroq is somewhat more compact than the Enyaq, Skoda emphatically profiles it as a full-fledged family car. Not surprising, because the Karoq, which is approximately the same size (petrol), is the same. Remarkably, Skoda even calls the Elroq ‘the electric successor to the Karoq’, which insinuates that the 2017 SUV will no longer have a petrol successor.
Underneath, we don’t expect too many surprises with the Elroq, which is of course on the well-known electric MEB platform of the Volkswagen Group. Count on battery packs of 58 or 77 kWh, as Volkswagen and Skoda already use. A driving range of more than 400 kilometers to well over 500 kilometers should be possible. The Elroq is not a distant prospect, but will be unveiled in the spring. He can get to work straight away, because next year we expect the Ford Explorer, also based on MEB, which at 4.46 meters may come closest to the Elroq. Volkswagen will undoubtedly come up with its own alternative in the long term and this also applies to Hyundai, which cannot lag behind if sister brand Kia will supply the EV5 from 2024. There is also the Peugeot e-3008, which even has a Dutch price tag. It’s getting busy there in the 4.5 meter class.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl