Pre-pandemic, Company Car & Van was given a look at a pre production Seat Born. In the interim, things went quiet, then Seat launched Cupra as a stand alone performance brand. Along came a Cupra Ateca & then the Formentor, available as a plug-in & winner of our 2022 SUV of the year. Both models oozed the Cupra DNA, with performance & acceleration to the fore. The latest Cupra, the Born, certainly looks the part, but with range the primary concern for most EV customers, can an electric Cupra deliver ? We found out.
What is it ?
Essentially, a rear wheel drive, lower-slung, more aggressive looking ID.3, sharing the same MEB electric vehicle platform as the Audi Q4 e-tron, Skoda Enyaq iV as well as the VW ID.3, 4 & 5.
Engines & range
The Born is offered with two batteries; a 58kWh battery offers 201bhp or 227bhp & a 77kWh battery 227bhp. The smaller battery comes with a range of 260 miles, whilst the larger 77kWh version will push on to a claimed 340 miles. Later in 2022, a smaller 44kWh battery will also be offered.
Model choice
You can choose from either the V1, V2 or V3 specifications, with each increasing the goodies.
Charging
The larger the battery the longer it takes to charge. So our test Born, the Cupra 58kWh V3 150kW/204ps model has a charging time of 6hrs 15 minutes using an AC 11kW charger from 0-100%. Utilise a DC 135kW fast charger & charging from 5-80% takes just 35 minutes.
Our advice, is to re charge your Cupra as often a you can. Why ? Electricity costs are about to go mental. If you have a 7kW home charger, get yourself onto a specialist EV charging deal such as Octopus Go, where overnight charging between 00.30 & 04.30 am, costs from just 7.5p a kWh. Daytime rates are currently four times that & are set to go up to 50p a kWh in 2023. Enough said.
Outside & in
The Born is definitely distinctive. My 22 year old son loved it’s aggressive styling, my wife thought it over styled. I am with the former. Distinctive, copper-coloured accents help the Born stand out from the crowd. Even the Cupra logo suggests ‘Power Ranger.’ It has a squat hot-hatch look, rather than that of a full blown SUV & therefore stands out in an increasingly vanilla sector.
As with the outside, Cupra has excelled in making the Born memorable. The fixtures & fittings are much nicer to the touch & better to look at than those you’ll encounter in the ID.3. Again, the copper detailing is carried over this time appearing on the steering wheel logo, dash edge & on the door & centre console trim. The colour scheme is muted greys & chrome.
Equipment
Even on V1 versions, standard kit is generous & includes 18″ alloys, LED headlights & tail lights, a 5.3″ digital cockpit, rear view camera, Adaptive Cruise Control, wireless smartphone charger & a 12″ touchscreen with Android Auto & Apple CarPlay. Safety is to the fore, with a Driver Alert System, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Assist & Dynamic Road Sign Display also offered.
V2 adds 19″ alloys, dark tinted rear windows, heated front seats, heated leather steering wheel & a heads-up display.
V3 specifications includes all of the above plus 20″ alloys, Granite Grey Dinamica seats, 12 way electrically adjusted front seats & a massage function.
Using the Seat Connect app on your smartphone, you can perform tasks such as pre-warming the cabin, remotely locking or unlocking the car or scheduling a service from the comfort of the sofa. A standard three-year ‘Remote Access’ subscription comes with your Born, so no extra spend required.
Price
Entry level V1 with the 58kWh battery & 204ps starts at about £35,000, whilst range topping 77kWh V3’s are around £42,000.
Practicality
Space up front is pretty good & in the rear, head & legroom is also generous. Cabin storage includes a glove box, twin centre cup holders, good sized door pockets, under armrest space including two C USB’s, with two more located in the rear.
The Born comes with a 385-litre boot. Lift up the floor cover & there’s handy room to store your charging cables. Access is easy with the flat floor & the carpet & boot surrounds are very well finished off.
Infotainment
Most functions are performed via the 12″ central touchscreen. Cupra utilises its own software to run the Born’s onboard technology, but the VW Group hardware is employed elsewhere, which can prove a tad complicated. For example, we struggled with the haptic switches both on the steering wheel & dash board when attempting to increase or decrease the radio volume & raise or lower the heating levels. Touch, touch & touch again & nothing seems to happen. Similarly, the cruise control buttons take a little getting used to, with plus & minus the logical choice for accelerating or decelerating, doing nothing of the sort.
Operating things via the touchscreen, is better. The screen is reachable from the drivers seat & after a week behind the wheel, your will begin to remember what each menu is & how to swipe through to the one you want.
Company car drivers & real world range
With 2% BIK, the Born is a tax saver. CO2 emissions of zero, make for greener motoring & coupled to decent charging times, it should be on your shopping list.
As far as range went, we travelled 408 miles averaging 3.8 miles per kWh. With it’s larger 20″ wheels & the V3 featuring heavier extras, when we had charged our Born to full, the range predicted was 223 miles. On an 85 mile motorway trip, the range dropped from 223 to 126 miles, standard for electric cars, whilst driving locally, the range was better than a ratio of 1:1.
Driving
The lightest 58kWh Born version we tested, weighs in at more than 1,800kg ( the 77kWh V3 at over 2 tonnes ) so the handling of this electric car is always going to be compromised. Climb in, push the start button, search for the gears, which are hidden to the left behind the steering wheel, twist into D, or in our case twist again into B to utilise the braking regeneration & away you go.
On the road, you can switch between various drive modes that change the response of the accelerator pedal. We found Comfort the best. Even in B mode, you’ll still have to press on the brake to come to a complete stop, but compared to D, which feels a lot looser, driving in B mode is noticeably harder under your right foot.
In the Cupra driving mode, you’ll notice not only the extra torque, but the increased weight to the steering, as the Born attempts to offer sporting fun. It’s weight though, means that it’s really only a blast in a straight line, with 0-62mph on our test car reached in 7.3 seconds. All models have the same 310Nm torque, so top speed is 99mph across all variants. The 58kWh 227bhp version brings the time down to 6.6 seconds, the 77kWh model to just 6 seconds.
In town it’s quiet & easy to drive, whilst on the motorway the inclusion of Adaptive Cruise Control takes the thinking out of it, making for an enjoyable cruiser at high speeds.
The electric motor feels punchy & in corners, the Born feels confident, so you can push it quite hard. However, the battery weight does come into play the faster you go, especially with direction changes at speed. With the Cupra lowered & stiffened suspension, the car tends to fidget over poor road surfaces, more so than the ID.3 & winding roads with pot holes are a chore.
This we feel though, is a small price to pay, as Cupra makes a decent go of making a heavy, rear wheel driven EV, feel more like a hot hatch than most other electric cars. The extra weight for example, means excellent traction, although the sensation when accelerating is more akin to being pushed, rather than pulled as you would be in a performance petrol car.
Pros
Exciting exterior & matching interior illustrate what Cupra is all about. Compared to most electric cars, the Born’s handling is very good. The build quality is terrific, putting the VW ID.3 to shame. It’s also a practical offering & in V1 spec very attractively priced.
Cons
It’s similar shape to the VW ID.3 can’t be completely hidden. Avoid the 20″ wheels (so the V3 models) as the driving range really does suffer. The VW Groups haptic touch sensitive buttons are very frustrating.
Conclusion
Whilst the Cupra Born is one of the better electric cars we’ve driven for handling, it is by default of being electric, never going to match a petrol Cupra for fun. Whether it can be considered a proper ‘Cupra’ then is open to discussion.
In all honesty, apart from some issues with the buttons in the cabin, we really like the Born & would choose a V1 or V2 version over an ID.3 every day of the week. It’s ‘overstyling’ is what makes it stand out & the interior cabin quality is more Audi than Volkswagen, which has to be a good thing. No it isn’t a hot-hatch, but then no electric car is & surely battery range trumps exhilaration in these times of energy costs ?
Born, born, born to be alive 4.25/5.
