Cupra Re-Born – Revisiting Cupra’s Efficient EV

For a brand that has been around for this long, I find it interesting how often I have to explain to people what Cupra is. Established as its own thing in 2018, the newest arm of the VAG group branched off from SEAT to focus on sporty offerings, honoring the Cup Racing origins of its name. It quickly grew to become a brand with a full lineup, showrooms, and a very clear identity. I drove its first EV offering, the Born, for the first time back in 2023, and felt it would be interesting to revisit the car for this new model year, especially after trying out (many) other EVs in the meantime. 

Once people get to hear my crash course on what Cupra is, one thing that is always unanimous after that is their perception of the design. Cupra doesn’t make a single bad looking car, and the Born is no exception. The lines are decisive and cohesive, and it doesn’t shout “Hey, I’m an EV!” by having no grilles or weird avant-garde quirks. There are, however, enough touches to separate it from the sibling id.3 and bring Cupra’s signature cues with the bronze details and the sporty lines and creases. 

Another winning characteristic of it is due to the very small overhangs, both front and back. Cupra uses a long wheelbase on a short car, leading to a platform that VW described in the past as “being as big as Golf on the outside and as big as a Passat inside”. But is it?

Okay, maybe not Passat big, but it is surely spacious for a compact car. The seats are very comfortable, which is no surprise considering the brand always gets the brief right here. They also look great, showing the thing for integrated headrests seems to be here to stay. They contribute to a great driving position that is good and easy to set up. Other touch surfaces are good, especially the grey suede that is nice to the touch and matches the vibe the brand is going for. Things get scratchy on the rest of the door cards and some dash elements, but one can never have it all.

There are handy storage solutions on the centre of the dashboard with some charging ports and a sliding cover to keep things tidy. At the back, the space between the two seats was some sort of bucket as my model was in the 4 seater configuration, but those two occupants benefit from good space and visibility, with plenty of knee and head room. The two tiered boot is very well finished – I feel weird even saying this – and super practical. For a hatchback of this size, space is absolutely not an issue.

Back to the drivers seat, there are two talking points. Remember when this new gen of VAG cars was released with the touch sensitive commands on the steering wheel, and how much push back they faced? The group has reacted in different manners for different cars, and here in the Born they implemented a solution that is still touch sensitive, but that requires a more conscious input has a more distinct feedback, and that solves the problem almost entirely by avoiding phantom touching. What still remains a head-scratcher, however, is the fact that the window switches are shared between the front and back windows. What probably was a cost cutting attempt that no one asked for turned into an unnecessary source of frustration when using the car.

The other point is technology. If you are coming from a car that is a few years old, the Born will feel modern, snappy and futuristic with its big screen and some of the helpful convenience features. But, when put against whatever else the industry is offering, it plays it safe and doesn’t stick its head out in any direction, it is just average, in the least aggressive meaning of the word.

The drivers cluster moves with the steering column when adjusted, but its small size cheapens the interior, especially due to the thick black bezels. Phone projection is only wired, which I don’t mind too much considering how well placed the charging ports are and how subpar the wireless charging pad performance is. CarPlay works with zero issues and benefits from turn by turn guidance on the cluster for certain navigation apps.

In terms of powertrain, the recipe that underpins the Born is a motor attached to the rear axle that offers 170kW of power and 310Nm of torque, fed by a battery with 77kWh of usable capacity. Charging is done via a 11kW onboard AC charger and 170 DC, both in line with the rest of the industry for cars in this class. Using the full AC potential, a full charge can be done in less than 8h (and sticking to the recommended 20-80 range would yield much shorter waiting times), and if you’re lucky to score a super-fast charger that maxes out the car’s 170kW DC charging capacity, a 5-80% charge can be done in 30 minutes. Not bad, these are all respectable specs. And how is it once the charging is done? 

The Start Engine button we are used to seeing in VAG cars is present here, but it is unnecessary in daily usage. This is because as you sit on the drivers seat and press the brake, the car turns on and you’re good to go. Using the gear selector by the cluster – which I find very handy, by the way – you can start moving on what is, overall, a very good to drive hatchback. The Born has the typical drive signature of cars of this size from the brand and, consequently, the group. It feels very poised, and firm-while-well-damped. It creates a sensation of robustness and competency that adds to the perception of quality of these cars. If you’ve been inside a GTi, S3, etc and liked how they drove, there is a lot to like here as well.

The power delivery is smooth and leads to quick sprints to city speeds while still being brisk and nimble as you get quicker. The brakes work well, but feel grabby most of the time, and given how well calibrated energy regeneration is, I just wish the car had a one pedal driving mode so that I could retire the brake pedal the same way I did the Start Button. On the bendy bits there is an initial tendency to safely understeer unless you go out of your way to force oversteer, and both of them are quickly and decisively addressed by the safety systems.

The two additional buttons on the steering wheel shift between the drive modes. The right one flicks between all of them in succession, while the one with the Cupra logo will jump between the Cupra Mode and the previously selected one, and makes it quick to jump between Range Mode and Cupra for that motorway ramp merge, or the sneaky roundabout with no one around. 

It’s too bad that I only started closely noting electric efficiency figures of the cars I drive, because my gut tells me this is the most efficient EV I’ve driven. It clocked 13kWh/100km during my driving, and at certain points, it seemed possible to cross the 600km mark. I think I could do it in perfect hypermiling conditions, which not only goes over the 548km claimed WLTP range, but is also a very impressive figure considering you’d be pressed to cover the same distance in a petrol car of the same size.  

The “on the move” driving assistances (adaptive cruise, emergency braking, lane keep assist) implemented here are flawless, extremely well calibrated and a breeze to use. All commands are intuitive, inputs are smooth and they work exactly as you’d expect, in combination with the Range Mode. When using this mode, all inputs become vastly watered down – there is a perceptible change in the car’s behaviour – nudging you to drive in a way to save electrons. 

I was happy to revisit the Born. It is a modern looking, spacious, nice to drive and very efficient EV, and it’s great to know the brand is reacting to the things people were initially unhappy with. All of this made the Born a much more compelling package, and one that I would not be mad to drive for longer, considering how much it reminisced me of the cars of the group I owned in the past and loved so much. Thanks, Cupra, for the opportunity, and thank you for reading!