New Kia EV3 vs new Skoda Elroq vs Renault Scenic

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New Kia EV3 vs new Skoda Elroq vs Renault Scenic

A new generation of family-friendly electric SUVs with lengthy official ranges and keen pricing has arrived. Let’s find out which of them is best prepared to meet your needs...

Kia EV3 vs Skoda Elroq vs Renault Scenic fronts

Neil Winn

Published15 March 2025

The contenders

NEW Kia EV3 Long Range GT-Line

List price £39,495
Target Price £39,495

The EV3 is Kia’s dinkiest electric car, but there’s nothing small about its official range of up to 375 miles. Can it punch above its weight and give larger SUV rivals a black eye?

NEW Skoda Elroq 85 Edition

List price £38,650
Target Price £36,150

This new sibling to the excellent Skoda Enyaq promises a similar level of practicality, but at a lower price point. And with the largest of its battery options, its 360-mile official range is competitive

Renault Scenic Long Range Techno

List price £40,995
Target Price £37,675

The benchmark in this test offers the longest official range here, plus a spacious interior and a generous equipment list. What's more, you get all that for a very keen price

The Tesla Model Y was the best-selling car on the planet last year, and it’s not hard to see why. Practical? Tick. Big range? Tick. Packed with enough tech to make Silicon Valley swoon? Absolutely. But here’s the rub: even the ‘cheap’ version will set you back nearly £50,000. And while heavy-hitting rivals such as the Kia EV6 and Skoda Enyaq are available for slightly less, they’re still a bit steep for many private buyers.

So, what’s the answer? Well, the Kia EV3 and Skoda Elroq are brand-new electric SUVs that promise impressive practicality and continent-crossing range, but at a price point that’s a little less eyebrow-raising.

The EV3 is Kia’s dinkiest electric model (it’s short enough that we classify it as a small electric SUV), slotting in beneath the middleweight EV6 and the hulking seven-seat Kia EV9. And yes, you’re right: it does look like a baby EV9. The design borrows heavily from its big brother, sporting the same ‘tiger face’ front end and use of clean, sharp creases to create a modern, squared-off profile.

You’ve got two battery choices with the EV3. The Standard Range option has a 55kWh usable capacity and an official range of 267 miles. The Long Range (with a usable capacity of 78kWh) ups the ante, allowing up to 375 miles between top-ups. We’ve gone for the latter, in mid-range GT-Line trim (which is likely to be the most popular).

Then there’s the Elroq. You could think of it as the electric equivalent of the combustion-engined Skoda Karoq, but in practice it feels more like a downsized Enyaq – and that’s no bad thing. It also introduces Skoda’s new ‘Modern Solid’ design language. Up front, that means a shiny black panel in place of a grille, sharp LED headlights, and bold lettering across the bonnet for maximum presence. From the side, though, there’s more than a hint of Enyaq about it.

The Elroq line-up is also rather straightforward. The entry-level version is the Elroq 50, with a 52kWh (usable capacity) battery and an official 230-mile range. Then there’s the Elroq 60, with a 63kWh battery that stretches the range to 260 miles. But here we're testing the Elroq 85g in top-spec Edition trim. It packs a 77kWh battery and a solid 360 miles of range (officially), making it the pick for longer adventures.

But these two newcomers don’t get a free run at glory, because we’ve brought along a Renault Scenic, which we’ve previously called the most well-rounded electric family SUV you can buy for less than £50,000. Bigger than the EV3 and similar in size to the Elroq, it packs a massive, 87kWh battery in Long Range guise, promising to be able to cover up to 379 miles between charges. Stick with entry-level Techno trim and it’s priced to compete head on with these rivals.

Driving

Performance, ride, handling, refinement

When designing a sensible family SUV, you’d assume straight-line performance would be low on the list of priorities. But Skoda must have missed that memo. The Elroq, with its rear-mounted electric motor making more power (282bhp) than a Toyota GR Yaris hot hatch, dashed from 0-60mph in a spirited 6.2sec in damp conditions.

In comparison, the 201bhp EV3 and 215bhp Scenic look relatively sedate, with 0-60mph times of 7.4sec and 7.9sec respectively. However, we emphasise the word ‘relatively’. Those are solid figures when you compare them with most combustion-engined family SUVs, and both feel satisfyingly punchy. Nipping past a dawdling car on a country road or getting up to motorway speeds is child’s play.

Our contenders all handle in a tidy, predictable manner. While the EV3’s steering is naturally weighted and accurate, relatively soft suspension allows a fair bit of body lean through corners, and braking hard causes the front end to dive like a submarine. But as long as you take it easy and don’t try to hustle it along, the EV3 handles well enough to suit most buyers’ needs.

The Scenic and Elroq are firmer and sharper, and they stay more upright through bends, giving you more confidence if you decide to push them a little harder. But while the Scenic is perfectly capable, it’s the Elroq that edges ahead here, with crisper steering, even less body lean and higher grip levels.

Don’t worry, though: neither the Scenic nor the Elroq sacrifices ride comfort for the sake of their extra poise. Both are smooth at higher speeds, although the Elroq is more settled over rougher surfaces around town; the Scenic can have occupants bobbing around in their seats, albeit gently. Neither can quite match the EV3 for comfort, though. It has a plush ride around town and is supremely composed on the motorway.

All three cars have adjustable levels of regenerative braking (for harvesting energy under deceleration). In their strongest settings, these systems also help to slow the cars down, but only the EV3 can come to a complete halt without you having to press the brake pedal. This can be handy around town.

When you do need to use the regular brakes, the EV3’s are the best, being smooth and progressive. The Elroq’s have an initial dead zone before they respond, while the Scenic’s pedal feels mushy at first before suddenly grabbing, making graceful stops trickier. The Scenic also requires the most space in which to perform an emergency stop from 70mph, while the EV3 can stop in the shortest distance.

There’s barely a whisper of wind noise at motorway speeds in the EV3 and Elroq, but the former generates a bit more road noise. The Scenic kicks up a little more of both. Overall, the Elroq – despite the occasional clunk from its rear suspension over sharp bumps – is the quietest cruiser, but the margins between them are small.

Our contenders’ capabilities as mile-munching cruisers are aided no end by having impressively long ranges. As we mentioned earlier, all three promise to cover more than 350 miles between charges, with just 19 miles officially separating the best (the Scenic) and the one bringing up the rear (the Elroq). We weren’t able to get comparable efficiency figures for this test, but in real-world use, you can expect to get around 320 miles from any of them in ideal (warm) conditions, with that figure dropping to less than 300 miles during the winter.

Behind the wheel

Driving position, visibility, build quality

Seat comfort and driving position are crucial things to get right in cars like these, and the EV3 in particular nails them, offering the best set-up of the three. The driver’s seat is high enough to remind you that you’re in an SUV, not a jacked-up hatchback, and it’s electrically adjustable (unlike in the Scenic and Elroq), so dialling in your ideal position is pleasingly straightforward.

The Elroq isn’t far behind the EV3 in this respect, though. Sure, you sit a little lower, and you have to adjust your seat manually, but the relationship between the seat, pedals and steering wheel is spot on. The figure-hugging seat offers the best side support through corners, while its relatively small digital instrument panel remains unobstructed regardless of how you position the steering wheel – something that can’t necessarily be said for the other two.

The Scenic, meanwhile, might not suit everyone. Some drivers will have no trouble finding an agreeable driving position, but others might find that the steering wheel feels too high in relation to the relatively low-mounted seat, no matter how it’s adjusted.

The right-hand side of the Scenic’s steering column is unusually congested, too. There’s a long ‘wand’ for gear selection, a fairly conventional stalk for operating the windscreen wipers, and a traditional Renault pod at the bottom for controlling the main audio functions (which you have to do by feel).

On the other hand, the Scenic has well-positioned physical switches for its climate control and related functions, whereas the placement of the climate control panel in the EV3 – between the instruments and infotainment screen – is far from ideal, because it’s obscured by the steering wheel.

As for the Elroq, here you're required to make any such adjustments via its touchscreen – something that's fiddly and distracting to do when you’re driving – or by using voice control.

Each car comes with front and rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera – which is just as well, because they have relatively small rear windows, so reversing into tight spaces would be a challenge without those aids. At least the EV3, with its tall side windows and low waistline, provides better visibility at junctions than the others.

As for interior quality, our trio are neck and neck. Each comes with a fabric-covered dashboard, contrasting stitching and ambient lighting. The Scenic and Elroq have more soft-touch plastics than the EV3, but the latter’s two-tone artificial leather seat upholstery feels surprisingly luxurious next to the cloth in the others, and its recycled plastics, while hard to the touch, feel solid and made to last.

Infotainment system

Kia EV3

The EV3’s 12.3in touchscreen features sharp graphics, a responsive interface and an intuitive layout. It includes sat-nav with a charger search function, phone mirroring and voice control that adapts to your speech. We found it more responsive and polished than the Elroq’s equivalent. Over-the-air updates ensure the software stays up to date. A minor complaint is that the touch-sensitive shortcut buttons (on a panel below the screen) can be easy to hit by accident.

Skoda Elroq

By a small margin, the Elroq has the largest touchscreen of our trio (13.0in); it has sharp graphics, is easy to use and responds quickly to inputs, with handy shortcut icons across the bottom. While this system is on par with that of the EV3, it’s not quite as slick as the Scenic’s. The standard eight-speaker sound system is punchy, but audiophiles might prefer to upgrade to the 12-speaker Canton alternative that’s included in the pricey (£4150) Advanced Package.

Renault Scenic

A Renault with a class-leading infotainment system? A couple of years ago, we wouldn’t have believed it, but the Scenic’s Google-based set-up, with a 12.0in, portrait-orientated touchscreen, is superb. Not only does it offer great clarity, a simple user interface and quick responses, but it’s also angled towards the driver, making it easy to read and reach. The standard wireless phone charger is conveniently placed below the screen, making it easy to reach when stationary.

Space and practicality

Front space, rear space, seating flexibility, boot

All of our contenders are spacious in the front, with no likelihood of you feeling cramped. The EV3, in particular, stands out for its light and airy interior, thanks to its tall side windows, low dashboard and minimalist, floor-mounted centre console between the seats.

Storage space is plentiful in the Scenic and Elroq; both have massive door pockets (the EV3’s are smaller) and deep cubbies under their centre armrests. The entry-level EV3 also offers a cubby beneath its armrest, but in GT-Line trim, this is replaced by a slide-out tray that’s designed to hold a laptop or tablet, so you can work while the car charges – a feature you’ll either find clever or unnecessary, depending on your needs.

Move to the rear and there’s enough space in each car for two tall adults to sit comfortably. However, being the smallest car here, the EV3 feels slightly tighter. Although leg room is generous, there isn’t much space for feet under the front seats, and passengers more than six feet tall might find their heads brushing against the ceiling.

The Scenic and Elroq are harder to separate. Both have flat floors (like the EV3) and more than enough head and leg room for tall passengers, although ultimately the Scenic allows them to stretch out the most.

The Elroq’s rear seats offer slightly better under-thigh support for long-distance comfort, while the Scenic benefits from thoughtful design details, such as a fold-down armrest with swivelling arms and integrated slots for holding devices upright – ideal for keeping kids entertained. All have decent shoulder space for three passengers sitting side by side, but the Scenic has the most comfortable middle seat.

None of these cars offers reclining or sliding rear seats, like those found in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and EV6. However, the Scenic’s seats fold in a practical 40/20/40 split, offering more flexibility than the 60/40 split in the EV3 and Elroq. That said, the Elroq has a ski hatch, allowing almost as much scope for carrying long items between two rear passengers as the Scenic’s set-up.

A height-adjustable boot floor is standard in the EV3 and Scenic; this feature is available in the Elroq only with the £250 Transport Package, which also includes a net under the parcel shelf for storing charging cables. The EV3 goes one better by having extra storage space under the bonnet – a feature all EVs should have.

In terms of outright luggage capacity, the Scenic leads the way. Its boot can swallow seven carry-on suitcases up to its parcel shelf – one more than the EV3 and Elroq can accept – with room left over in all three for a couple of soft bags. An electric tailgate is standard on the Scenic, while you’ll need to upgrade to GT-Line S trim to get the same on the EV3, or add the £1625 Plus Package on the Elroq.