Latest news with #Enyaq
Time of India
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
VW's Skoda posts 12% profit rise in H1 as electric sales grow
Skoda Auto , a Volkswagen unit, increased the share of electric vehicles in its sales mix in the first half of the year and posted a nearly 12 per cent rise in operating profit to 1.3 billion euros ($1.52 billion), it said on Monday. The Czech carmaker's revenue for the first six months rose nearly 12 per cent year on year to 15.1 billion euros. Deliveries were up 14 per cent to 509,400 vehicles in the period. Around 23 per cent of those deliveries were either fully electric or plug-in hybrid models, up from 9.4 per cent in the first half of last year, the company said. Chief Executive Klaus Zellmer said customers had placed more than 120,000 orders for Skoda's all-electric Enyaq and Elroq models by the end of June, highlighting progress in its electrification strategy. European automakers have booked multi-billion-euro losses and issued profit warnings as they struggle to handle competition from China, U.S. import tariffs, and EU regulations aimed at speeding up the EV transition. "Sales relative to the overall market performance, we are doing good," Zellmer told journalists in a video conference. While overall car sales have fallen in Europe this year, sales of electric vehicles - a priority segment for companies like Skoda Auto - have been rising. Zellmer said the company sees big potential with the new Epiq, an electric SUV priced at 25,000 euros that will target entry-level consumers. It plans to launch the Epiq in the first half of 2026. "We put a lot of hope or I would even say ... expectation on that car," he said. "Our current rate of electrified drive train sales ... has to go up." In the European market, Skoda delivered 409,100 vehicles to customers, an increase of nearly 11 per cent that outperformed the overall market and was underpinned by the sales of 72,000 electric vehicles and 21,400 plug-in hybrids, the company said. Skoda also achieved record results in India where it delivered 33,000 vehicles, representing year-on-year growth of 108 per cent, the company said.
Top Gear
18-07-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Skoda Elroq vRS review: Skoda taps into its rally history… Reviews 2025
Don't get too carried away. Skoda has a modest but admirable rally heritage, which began with the 200 RS of the Seventies and peaked with the 130 RS that followed it a few years later. That car won its class at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1977 and the European Touring Car Championship in 1981, and those remain the two biggest prizes in the Czech brand's trophy cabinet. It probably doesn't spend much on polish, is what we're saying. Anyway, that success later inspired some road-going stuff, like the original Octavia vRS in 2001 and the cult hero Fabia vRS diesel in 2003. Today you can get your hands on a vRS version of the current Mk4 Octavia, and Skoda started to really push its luck with a vRS-badged Enyaq a few years ago. To save you a click… we didn't like it. No one actually knows where vRS comes from – even Skoda isn't sure – but the little 'v' is unique to the UK, and legend has it that's because Skoda wanted to avoid a legal ding dong with Ford over the RS moniker it uses on the other side of the Channel. It stands for 'Victory Rally Sport'. Which is snappier than 'Occasional Winners Rally Sport'. Enough background, why am I looking at an Elroq? Ah, well, Skoda has decided the vRS badge could and should be used more liberally, which explains the existence of a Kodiaq vRS (!) with the heart of a Golf GTI. But especially so in the electric sphere, where emotion and heritage aren't as easy to come by. So as well as doubling down on an updated Enyaq vRS as part of that car's recent facelift, there's also a vRS model of the new Elroq crossover as well. Ta da! Like its marginally longer, older sibling, the Elroq vRS follows the same sort of blueprint: lowered 'sports' chassis (10mm at the front and 15mm at the rear), DCC dampers with 15 stages of adjustment, and more power. Lots more power. Well the regular Elroq starts off with a 168bhp motor mounted at the rear and swells to 281bhp as you walk up to the top-spec model. This Elroq has two motors for all-wheel drive. So total shove amounts to 335bhp and 402lb ft. And that makes this the joint fastest-accelerating Skoda ever made. No need to guess your next question. From a standing start the Elroq vRS will hit 62mph in 5.4 seconds, an identical time to the Enyaq vRS. It'll top out at 111mph. For a small crossover designed to ferry youngsters between piano recitals, judo and the dentist, it's rather nifty. Is that really who it's for? Parental taxi duty? Well this is the thing. The audience for a heftily motivated, electric mini SUV isn't going to be high, and Skoda only expects it to account for about five per cent of Elroq sales. You'd have to really want the extra lavishings that come on the kit list, and for the family business to be booming. Because it costs £46,560. What?! That's GR Yaris money! Yep. And that's before you've added the heat pump (£1,100) and winter package (£600) with its heated seats front and back, heated windscreen and three-zone climate control. Our test car came to £48,260. Good god. Rather steep isn't it? We know the cheapest cars struggle to get under twenty grand these days and that electric power still comes at a premium. But it's nearly fifty thousand pounds sterling. That's a deposit on a nice house. Or a month's rent in Clapham. Does it get platinum alloys and a hydraulic handbrake fashioned from ivory? In a rare win for the elephants, no. But Skoda has thrown almost everything in its inventory at the Elroq vRS, fitting it out with gloss black trim, roof rails, badging and window frames; bespoke 'sports' bumpers, an illuminated 'Tech Deck' face, matrix 'eyelash' LEDs (Skoda's words, not ours), 21s and the option of the Hyper Green paint you see up there. High vis has never looked this cool. Inside you get a heated, three-spoke leather steering wheel, some lovely microsuede upholstery and lime green stitching, plus comfy sports seats with massage function and a Canton sound system. The pedals are upgraded to stainless steel, so primed for a lifetime of heavy stomping. The driver's display is a five-inch digital number and the touchscreen is a 13-incher – VW Group's tech isn't so bad these days, and there's some vRS-specific graphics in addition to an HUD with augmented reality. It's properly nice in here. As you'd damn well expect for the money involved. That's a lot of kit for a relatively small car. Yeah, the best way to think of the vRS is as a trim level. A troublingly expensive, but nonetheless stacked, trim level. And if you've got the cash to play with, you'll be getting a well-styled car that's nice to spend time in. Hard to fault on that front. The mistake is to take the rallying schtick too seriously. Because if you're looking for an heir to the R5, you're going to be unimpressed. A total let-down, then? Like I said, it depends on your expectations. The Elroq vRS has tremendous point-and-squirt ability, with blitzy acceleration rather than the kind that'll pinball your internal organs around. It's fluid and flowy, but not particularly lively through corners. All very safe and neutral, with a tendency to understeer. Just what you'd expect from all-wheel drive. And not what you'd hope for given the inspiration behind it. The ride is fine, but it's a bit more agitated than the vRS-ified Enyaq. A consequence of being more compact? The softest suspension setting is precious little different to the firmest one 14 clicks to the right. Nor is the supposedly fettled steering that different in character. So… how do I have fun in this thing? With the regen. You get four different levels of braking force, adjustable via the paddles behind the steering wheel. On a twisty road the challenge is gauging how much retardation you'll need before a corner in order to nail the weight transfer and make the wheels grip up. All while hanging onto as much momentum as possible. It's satisfying, if not thrilling. The brakes themselves are good too, soft enough to make urban stuff easy but giving good feel under heavier usage. Bet that tanks the range… You know what, even with gratuitous amounts of braking (purely for testing purposes, you understand) we averaged 3.5 mi/kWh over a mix of fast country roads and village roads in mid-Wales. Baking hot day helped too. Given the 84kWh battery (79kWh usable), that shakes out at roughly 275 miles of range against a claim of 339. You could do a lot worse. Should I go for it? What, buy one you mean? Yeah. Hmm. At that price the Elroq vRS is a real over-indulgence; a double choc chip 'n' cookie dough sundae with extra cream, warm salted caramel topping and honeycomb wafer. Served in crystal glassware. By a gentleman in tails. Called Jeeves. And you'd probably be just as happy with a simple sticky toffee pudding. Sorry, it's getting late as we write this and peckishness is building.
The Independent
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Independent
Skoda Enyaq Updated: What's New in 2025?
Skoda 's first all-electric model, the all popular Enyaq, has been given an update with styling tweaks taking inspiration from the brand's 'modern solid' design language, plus equipment and technology boosts to make it even more competitive. A typical Skoda blend of space and value, it proved hugely popular with buyers – we've given it an eight-out-of-ten rating in our Skoda Enyaq review. Watch more from Drive Smart on Independent TV.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Volkswagen H1 BEV Deliveries Rise 47% Y/Y on Robust Growth in Europe
Volkswagen AG VWAGY EV deliveries rose nearly 50% year over year in the first half of 2025. It delivered 465,500 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) globally during the first half of 2025, up 47% from the 317,200 units delivered in the same period in 2024. BEVs now account for 11% of VWAGY's total global sales, up from 7% a year this strong growth, the pace moderated slightly in the second quarter. Between April and June, the Group delivered 248,700 electric vehicles, an improvement over the first quarter's 216,900 but only a 37.6% increase compared to the second quarter of last year. Europe, which remains Volkswagen's largest EV market, reported the biggest growth in BEVs. Europe recorded 189,700 BEV deliveries in the second quarter, showing growth of nearly 73% year over year. For the first half, the region saw 347,900 electric deliveries, up 89% year over contrast, performance in China declined. The company delivered 33,400 EVs in the second quarter, down 32.6% year over year. The United States presented a mixed picture, with a 24.3% year-over-year increase in BEVs in the first half, but the second quarter saw a minor dip of 600 vehicles or 5.2% year over all brands and powertrains, Volkswagen Group delivered 2.27 million vehicles in the second quarter. BEVs represented 10.95% of those sales. For the first half of the year, the Group delivered a total of 4.4 million vehicles, with BEVs comprising 10.57%, up from 7% in the same period last year. Additionally, the company delivered 192,300 plug-in hybrids in the first half, up 41% year over Passenger Cars led in overall EV deliveries, although its second-quarter volume dipped slightly by 2.8% year over year to 97,500 units. Skoda recorded the most dramatic growth, with electric vehicle deliveries surging 196% year over year in the second quarter to 46,000 units, supported by the new Elroq e-SUV and updated Enyaq. Seat/Cupra delivered 19,000 BEVs, up 67.2% year over year, while VW Commercial Vehicles contributed 14,800 BEVs, up 94.2% year over year. Together, these brands helped boost the Core brand group's EV deliveries by 31.5% year over the Progressive and Sport Luxury brand segments, Audi was the sole EV contributor in the former, with 55,000 deliveries, up 34.1% year over year. In the latter, Porsche drove a 235.6% jump, delivering 15,800 EVs in the first half, a sharp rebound from the 4,700 units in the second quarter of 2024, fueled by the introduction of the electric new Macan also entered the top 10 best-selling models within the Group, taking ninth place with 25,900 units in the first half of the year. Audi's Q6 e-tron, a platform sibling to the Macan, came in sixth with 36,500 deliveries. The remaining top models are all built on the MEB platform, led by the VW ID.4/ID.5 duo with 84,900 units, followed by the ID.3 with 60,700 and Audi's Q4 e-tron with 44,600. The VW ID.7 and Skoda Enyaq were nearly tied at 38,700, while the Elroq surpassed both the ID. Buzz at 27,600 and the Cupra Born at 22, the Trucks brand group under Traton, MAN increased its electric truck and bus deliveries from 100 to 440 units, while Scania nearly doubled its total from 60 to 120 units. International, formerly known as Navistar, reported a 21.2% year-over-year decline to 90 units and Volkswagen Truck & Bus did not register any electric deliveries in the second Marco Schubert, member of the Volkswagen Group's Extended Executive Committee for Sales, the company is maintaining strong momentum, driven largely by the launch of numerous new models. This is especially true for fully electric vehicles. In Western Europe, one out of every five vehicles delivered is now fully electric. Incoming orders for the same are also on the rise and have grown more than 60% year over year. VWAGY carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) at better-ranked stocks in the auto space are Strattec Security Corporation STRT, Aisin Corporation ASEKY and Westport Fuel Systems Inc. WPRT, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks Zacks Consensus Estimate for STRT's fiscal 2025 sales and earnings implies year-over-year growth of 3.49% and 8.11%, respectively. EPS estimates for fiscal 2025 and 2026 have improved 73 cents and 91 cents, respectively, in the past 60 Zacks Consensus Estimate for ASEKY's fiscal 2026 sales and earnings implies year-over-year growth of 6.3% and 62.22%, respectively. EPS estimates for fiscal 2026 and 2027 have improved 34 cents and 47 cents, respectively, in the past 60 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WPRT's 2025 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 40.93%. EPS estimates for 2025 and 2026 have improved 44 cents and 23 cents, respectively, in the past 60 days. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (WPRT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Strattec Security Corporation (STRT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd. Unsponsored ADR (ASEKY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Volkswagen AG Unsponsored ADR (VWAGY) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Daily Record
07-07-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Record
JOHN MURDOCH'S DRIVE TIME: We try out the new Skoda Elroq all-electric SUV and examine why some manufacturers are moving to bring back switches and buttons
It might be the baby of Skoda's electric SUV family but the Elroq is a substantial car and is not much smaller than its big brother Enyaq, and is considerably cheaper. In this instalment of John Murdoch's Drive Time, John tries out the new Skoda Elroq all-electric SUV and examines why some manufacturers are moving to bring back switches and buttons to make things easier for drivers. I have just had my first drive in Skoda's Elroq electric SUV and with the range starting from £31,500 it offers great value for money. It might be the baby of Skoda's electric SUV family but the Elroq is a substantial car and is not much smaller than its big brother Enyaq, and is considerably cheaper. It offers a variety of powertrain and battery options, with a maximum range of up to 360 miles and comes with a rear-view camera, Crew Protect Assist, blind spot detection and a 13-inch infotainment screen with SmartLink. Think of it as the electric alternative to the Karoq and it offers list price parity with its ICE counterpart. The Elroq is the first Skoda model to adopt the brand's new Modern Solid design language. A glossy black Tech-Deck Face replaces the typical Skoda grille, while still referencing familiar Skoda lines. The new front is also characterised by a front bumper with a dark chrome insert, while the hallmark Skoda SUV 'four eyes' headlights graphic has been completely reinterpreted. It is also the first model to feature the Skoda lettering on both the bonnet and steering wheel. The handsome aerodynamic body boasts a drag coefficient of just 0.26. The top 85 model I sampled has a top speed of 111mph and a fairly rapid 0 to 62mph acceleration of 6.6 seconds. The Elroq is available with three different battery sizes and powertrains starting at 170ps for the entry-level Elroq 50 model. The Elroq 85 can achieve a maximum range of 360 miles and charging rates of up to 175 kW at DC fast-charging stations enable the 82 kWh battery of the Elroq 85 to recharge from 10 to 80 per cent in 28 minutes. The batteries of the Elroq 50 and Elroq 60 can be charged even more quickly, in 25 minutes or less. It is very practical and has the largest boot in its class with 470 litres of luggage capacity and up to 1,580 litres with the rear seats folded down. There are also new Simply Clever features, among them compartments offering 48 litres of storage capacity and a storage net for the charging cable under the parcel shelf. A range of intuitive connectivity features, advanced assistance systems and up to nine airbags are also fitted. The six model Elroq line up tops out at £41,600 for SportLine 85 versions and my car the Elroq Edition 85 came in at £38,860 - sharply priced compared to some of its competitors. The roomy cabin is modern and offers stacks of kit and luxury touches. The materials are excellent and there is strong build quality throughout the cabin. As is usual from Skoda, there are lots of handy extra features to enjoy. The Elroq drives well in town on open roads and is also a very comfortable motorway cruiser. It does everything a family car needs to well and is composed and neatly balanced. It feels solid and substantial and the suspension deals well with all kinds of surfaces. With stacks of equipment, driver and safety aids, good looks and value for money, the Elroq is hard to beat. Just don't add too many options as the test car finished at £47,140 and, as always, make sure an EV suits your needs before parting with your cash. Also making the news, breakdown provider Start Rescue is giving support to vehicle manufacturers opting to bring back physical buttons to the dashboards of their latest models. Scrolling through on-screen menus, sometimes to perform the simplest functions, concerns many safety experts who believe this may be distracting drivers from the road ahead - and I agree with them. Euro NCAP, the independent vehicle safety rating organisation, will be introducing stricter testing protocols for 2026, mandating physical controls for key functions to reduce eyes-off-road time and promote safer driving. The issue has grown to the extent that drivers are even calling their breakdown provider for support after touchscreen problems bring their journey to a premature halt, with Start Rescue seeing an increase in touchscreen related call-outs. "Our UK support centre is receiving calls from customers facing touchscreen issues. We're receiving reports of screens 'freezing' and individual operations not responding with customers thinking there's a much wider problem," said Lee Puffett, managing director of Start Rescue. "We're backing manufacturers re-introducing more buttons, switches and rotary controls. "It's welcome from a safety perspective with key equipment like screen demisting always being available with a quick click and not being wholly reliant on a touchscreen." Start Rescue is also receiving customer enquiries concerning "juddering" steering wheels which are activated by lane assist systems or driver drowsiness and awareness alerts. Stuart Masson, editorial director of The Car Expert, one of the UK's leading independent authorities on new and used cars and motoring matters added: "The good news is that manufacturers are responding to customer needs. Important new cars we've evaluated from several major brands now offer more well-positioned buttons and that's a direct result of customer feedback. "Motorists are also being given more choice over the alerts they receive from the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems featured in all new vehicles, some of which can be distracting like a suddenly, juddering steering wheel. "The option to store your personal preferences is also a step in the right direction." Start Rescue believes the solution lies in a balanced approach combining easy-to-use screens with simple, physical buttons for key controls. The company is calling on manufacturers to: - Prioritise hybrid dashboards that combine physical and digital interfaces. - Ensure critical safety functions are never buried in menus. - Allow drivers to customise alerts and display preferences. - Improve software to prevent screen-freeze and lag. If you have repeated issues with your car's touchscreen, Start Rescue always advises to seek qualified, professional support as there may be a hardware issue or damage to the display.
