CUPRA Born: why it’s a great standout EV

Pop the door open, and you get a bold branded CUPRA puddle light to welcome you to the car. Round the back, the coast-to-coast LED light bar reaches right across the rear from left to right, giving the CUPRA Born a bold sophisticated look. The rear spoiler and diffuser hint further at the car’s underlying driving character.

Packed with plenty of tech

Inside the CUPRA Born there’s a wealth of copper detailing and six-colour ambient lighting to give you that exclusive feel, day or night. Equally, the cossetting bucket seats – trimmed in black upcycled Seaqual yarn on the CUPRA Born V1 and V2 and in luxurious-feeling Granite Grey Dinamica on the CUPRA Born V3 – deliver exceptional comfort and support.

They put you in prime position to enjoy the crisp 5.3-inch digital cockpit that positions key info right in your eyeline behind the leather-wrapped multi-function steering wheel. The large 12.9-inch central touchscreen offers a wealth of CUPRA Connect Gen 4 features – including always-online 3D navigation with real-time traffic and Wireless Full Link Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration with your smartphone. And it can all be controlled with CUPRA’s intuitive voice control.

The CUPRA Born VZ adds the Tech (M) package as standard, featuring keyless entry, a wireless phone charger and CAR2X connectivity.

You can interact with your CUPRA Born remotely, using the MyCUPRA smartphone app, letting you check your car’s location, its current charge and its predicted range. It also lets you schedule or de-activate how your CUPRA Born is charging to better control your costs, as well as pre-warming or pre-cooling the car to ensure it’s at the perfect temperature while still plugged in and charging. 

Add in the CUPRA Charging service, and you get simple one-touch pay-as-you-go access to around 550,000 charging points across Europe, as well as two monthly membership tiers that help you cut your costs. 

The CUPRA Born also offers plenty of useful driving and safety aids, with the CUPRA Born V1 including rain-sensing wipers, adaptive cruise control with speed limiter, dynamic road-sign display, lane assist, forward collision warning with automatic braking, and a driver alert system that recognises when you might be tired as standard. Walk up the range or pick the optional Pilot parking and Tech packs, and you get even more.

The CUPRA Born VZ adds an enhanced suite of driving and safety aids, with the optional Travel Assist 2.6 (which comes as standard on the CUPRA Born VZ First Edition) combining the Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Assist to improve their performance, especially on poorly marked roads. Optional Side Assist keeps an eye on your blind spots when you’re on the move, while Exit Warning will alert you to obstacles when you’re pulling away from a parking spot.

Then, when you do reach your final destination for the day, the optional 360-degree Top View Camera and Remote Park Assist and Trained Park Assist make it even easier to find your CUPRA Born VZ’s fit for the evening.

Perfectly practical in every way

We know that the CUPRA Born packs in plenty of hot-hatch-baiting all-electric performance and driving character. But what is it like to drive and use every day?

Well, the CUPRA Born V1, V2 and V3 models all come with a 59kWh battery which offers up to 266 miles of all-electric range based on official figures, while the CUPRA Born V3 also offers the option of a larger 77kWh battery that delivers up to 348 miles of range if you feel the need to go further. Then there’s the range-topping CUPRA Born VZ, which boasts an even-larger-capacity 79kWh battery alongside its enhanced performance that offers up to 372 miles of electric range.

The CUPRA Born is also incredibly fast to charge, so you spend less time standing still and more time enjoying the drive. The CUPRA Born V1 offers 165kW charging speeds as standard, letting you charge from 10% to 80% in as little as 24 minutes on a compatible ultra-rapid DC public charger. The CUPRA Born V3 and CUPRA Born VZ offer even faster charging speeds up to 175kW and 185kW respectively. On a compatible ultra-rapid DC charger that could top you up from 10% to 80% in as little as 26 minutes. 

So, with the CUPRA Born’s great driving character, appealing long-range capability, and fast charging speeds that cut the time you spend topping up, you’ll certainly be planning some epic road trips. And that long-distance practicality is where the CUPRA Born shines compared to some of its key rivals.

As the What Car? road test team explained in its five-star review: “The CUPRA Born’s ride height has been lowered slightly, but it does a good job of absorbing lumps and bumps in the road. With precious little noise from its electric motor, it’s very quiet at town speeds. Pick up the pace, and it’s still impressively hushed. The high-performance CUPRA Born VZ gets adaptive suspension as standard, which means you can adjust the setup to better suit the road you’re on. As such, the CUPRA Born VZ is comfortable, even with its large 20in alloy wheels.”

Finally, there’s plenty of room to pack in friends and their luggage. “The CUPRA Born is roughly the same length as the Volkswagen Golf and is just as roomy in the rear,” What Car? said. “There’s space for at least a six-foot passenger to sit behind someone equally tall without feeling squished. At 385 litres, the CUPRA Born's boot is about the same size as a Volkswagen Golf’s and will be fine for such daily duties as carrying a small buggy, the weekly shop or a weekend away.”