1 week Ago By Erin Baker
Now, bear with me. I know what you’re wondering: has Vogue on the Road lost the plot by featuring Skoda this month? This is a brand that was the butt of all car jokes throughout the ’80s (“How do you double the price of a Skoda? Fill up the tank”; “What do you call a Skoda with a sunroof? A tip,” and so on). Beyond that, if people thought charitably about Skoda, it was about the brand’s exceptional value rather than any sense of luxury.
But electric cars have tipped the definition of what makes a car desirable on its head. Kia and Hyundai have designed extraordinary electric cars recently, replete with beautiful materials, great sound quality, retro styling and even wellness features, which have catapulted them to the top of the list of the most-wanted electric cars, above some of the offerings from the likes of Audi or Mercedes. Luxury for electric drivers now means peace of mind: no range anxiety, sustainable materials, a low carbon footprint, a smooth and silent drive, and clever little touches.
And yes, value for money is key, even for wealthy consumers: no one likes feeling ripped off when it comes to making the switch to electric. People want to know they’ve made a smart choice, in every sense of the word. Enter the Skoda Elroq SUV.
Skoda has transformed itself beyond recognition in recent years: it’s owned by Volkswagen Group so has great reliability and uses high-quality materials. It shares the same screen, satnav, audio system and buttons as other sibling brands including VW, Cupra and Audi. Moreover, the Elroq is one of a tiny group of electric SUVs which costs the same as its petrol equivalent (the Karoq), instead of 30 per cent more because of the battery.
So it’s a canny car that’s ahead of its time in the race for price equality, which all car brands are desperately trying to reach. Joy of joys, it also still has all the same surprise-and-delight tricks up its sleeve as other Skodas, such as hidden umbrellas in the front doors, a concealed ice scraper in the boot lid, and a net for the charging cable, sewn in to the underside of the parcel shelf. Buy this car and you’ll have bragging rights for the year over your mates, who all spent way more money and ended up with way less car.
Aspiring to feel at one with nature in our zero-emissions electric car , we treated our Elroq to a jaunt in the New Forest, to commune with the open heathland and wild ponies (note that some of them can commune a little too up close and personally in the carparks). There’s plenty of space in the back of the car for teenagers and the odd dog (suitably secured), a decent boot for luggage and coats, and storage for phones, water bottles and snacks up front. We also love the Loft design version, with its smart recycled grey cloth covering on the dash.
What an incredible place the New Forest is when the sun dances off the still water of the blue ponds and finds its ways between the trees onto the mossy forest floor. Is there a prettier part of the UK? It’s spellbinding, and I kept annoying my teenage sons by insisting they look up from trying to pair their phone with Apple CarPlay, in order to admire the views. “Less Kendrick Lamar, more cloud-gazing,” became my pointless refrain.
The New Forest is blessed with some fantastic places to stay, too, and we (my 14-year-old and 12-year-old sons, plus our six-year-old black Labrador) had plumped for one of Chewton Glen’s incredible Treehouses , which felt apt for an adventure in such a simple, clean and energy-efficient electric car. To be among the trees, breathing in oxygen, watching the birds flit between the branches, felt like the perfect complement to the Elroq. We left Kent with a full charge: the Elroq comes with three battery sizes and we’d advise you to go for the largest (and most expensive), the “85” version, because it has a maximum range of 360 miles, which is what you need to avoid anxiety about having to stop to charge.
And this is the serious point about this Elroq: for all the talk about sustainability , bigger, more powerful and more expensive luxury electric cars are, for the most part, hard to justify. It’s very hard to make an environmental case for an electric car that is so big, and full of so much stuff, that it weighs somewhere between 2.5 and 3 tonnes.
That’s far too much mass for a battery to successfully lug around. It demands a hell of a lot of power, which comes from electricity from power stations, which don’t get their energy entirely from renewables, and you will need to charge it every 200 miles or so. A simple and relatively light (a mere 2 tonnes) electric car is the more environmentally-conscious choice.
And so we made it – in the fading light, and with detours for a picnic lunch among the heather and horses – from Tunbridge Wells to Chewton Glen with a quarter of battery charge left to spare (and plenty of charging points at the hotel). The Treehouses are beautifully tucked away in the woods, with curving balconies above the tree canopy, electric buggies to take you to the main hotel, a hatch through which your breakfast hamper is slid silently each morning, and even PlayStations for the kids in their room, accessed by a wooden staircase that doubles as book shelves. We ate hearty supergrain salads and Thai crab risotto for supper in James Martin’s The Kitchen, and wandered back along the meandering pathways to our Treehouse, gazing up at the stars.
The entire trip, from the car to the bed, felt calm and – dare we say it? – wholesome (apart from that damn PlayStation). The car: The Skoda Elroq.
