Two things cut the new Skoda Karoq out from the rest of the compact SUV herd.
One is the optional ‘Varioflex’ leather seats that can be folded away or discarded completely to make more room for luggage. The other is the new 1.5-litre direct-injected turbocharged four-cylinder engine from the Volkswagen Group.
The Karoq debuts this new-age petrol engine for the group in the New Zealand marketplace, and the 1.5-litre lives up to its billing of offering diesel-like frugality and torque accessibility while living up to the convenience advantages of a benzene-burner – no RUCs, lower registration fees and no smelly hands after filling up.
The numbers tell the story of the efficiency advantages of the new 1.5-litre. Lab test results over the EC driving cycle record its fuel use over combined city/highway driving simulations at a lowly 5.5 litres per 100km. With most competitors (Sportage, RAV4, Qashqai etc.) rated as using another three litres/100km over the same lab test, Skoda New Zealand is confident that Karoq owners will save around $3000 in fuel use over 60,000km of driving compared to those non-turbo, larger-displacement competitors.
That’s a pretty compelling selling point even before you consider the lower environmental impact that comes as a result.
The new 1.5-litre has several features that contribute to this conservation of fuel load. It can de-activate the middle two cylinders when they are surplus to present requirements, and it is built to tighter tolerances between it’s reciprocating and rotating components than most combustion engines. Typically, these tighter tolerances would create challenges to the thermal management of the engine, but the 1.5-litre overcomes these with new cooling technologies. It is arguably the most advanced engine of its type, and it’s refined and ultra-smooth demeanour help back up the argument.
The other eyebrow-raising number of the front-drive Karoq TSI is the 8.6 seconds it takes to sprint from rest to the legal limit. All the competitors above need at least 10 seconds to realise the open road speed limit from a standstill. Some even require 11. It’s the increased access to driving force that the boost from the turbo enables that contributes to this performance advantage.
The 1.5-litre develops 110kW at 5000rpm and 250Nm at 1500rpm, outputs that are efficfficientently processed by the seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox fitted to the $38,990 Karoq Ambition+ TSI, and its better-dressed sibling, the $42,990 Karoq Style TSI.
There’s another powertrain available for the $48,490 Karoq Style TDI 4×4, which comes with a 2.0 turbo-diesel four, uses a similar seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox, and has an adaptive 4wd system. The extra weight of the bigger compression-ignition engine and the four-paw torque distribution might raise the 0-100 sprint interval of the TDI to 9.3 seconds according to Skoda, but frugality is increased to 5.2 litres/100km.
Perhaps the most compelling reasons to buy the 110kW/340Nm TDI are the increased towing capacity and tractive advantages of all-wheel-drive. The diesel Karoq is rated tow 2000kg braked trailers, while the petrols are limited to 1500kg trailers.
The five-seat Karoq replaces the quirky Yeti in Skoda’s lineup and is quite a bit bigger at 4.382 metres in length, 159mm longer than its forebear. That’s still 153mm shorter than the successful seven-seat medium/large Kodiaq SUV currently on sale in the same showroom. The relatively spacious cabin offers luggage configurations that provide between 521 and 1630 litres of stowage. Ticking the Varioflex option ($1750 on its own, or $2500 when packaged with a leather-trimmed steering wheel and polished pedals) allows more versatile seating arrangements that can provide between 479 and 1810 litres of stash space.
Subject to the supply of the Karoq to the New Zealand market, the more compact alternative to the Kodiaq has the potential to become the best-selling Skoda model range here. The Czech automotive brand first broke through the 1000-unit barrier in annual sales back in 2014, and sales have risen incrementally over the next three years to 1200 units in 2017. The target for 2018 is 1800 sales, which gives some idea of the impact that the Karoq range will have.
That target will be raised again to 2000 units in 2019 when Skoda will launch a small SUV to complement the Karoq and Kodiaq ranges.