Skoda Elroq RS: Hot electric SUV delayed for Australia

Skoda Australia has pushed back the launch of its Elroq RS electric SUV until early next year, citing demand pressures caused by conflict in the Middle East.

Previously slated to arrive during the second quarter of this year, the mean, optionally green Elroq RS is now set to hit the Australian market in March 2027 – nearly 12 months later than originally planned.

"One vehicle we said we were going to bring this year was the Elroq RS," Skoda Australia head of marketing and product Kieran Merrigan told CarExpert in Queenstown, New Zealand.

"We have delayed it slightly. Not because we wanted to, but during the high demand for electric cars we ran out of production of Elroq.

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"We had a lot of customer deliveries and we wanted to focus on delivering the customer deliveries we've had, rather than introducing a new model just for the sake of it.

"So we are in the process of getting through that backlog of customer orders, and our plan is to... [launch] March next year."

Skoda sold 345 non-RS Elroqs – a smaller sibling of the Enyaq – to the end of July, after launching the model locally late last year.

More broadly, 2026 has proved a difficult year to plan an EV launch amid sudden shifts in demand, even if the overall increase in uptake is good news for automakers.

Updated figures show new EV purchases more than doubled quarter-on-quarter in the three months to June 30, while electrified vehicles – EVs, hybrids and plug-in hybrids – accounted for 49 per cent of new-vehicle sales during the period.

The spike coincided with soaring fuel prices from early March following the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz at the end of February.

When it finally arrives, the hotter Elroq RS will join the Enyaq RS, Octavia RS and Kodiaq RS in Skoda’s performance lineup.

Both the Elroq RS and Enyaq RS are powered by a pair of electric motors, one for each axle, generating a total output of 250kW. The pair also share a claimed 0-100km/h sprint of 5.4 seconds, as well as a top speed of 180km/h.

The battery has 79kWh of usable capacity, and has a WLTP range of 546km in the Enyaq RS crossover, 557km in the RS Coupe, and 549km in the Elroq RS.