Cupra Born: Electrified with a touch of copper
After driving the Cupra Formentor more than a year ago, I fell in love with the whole Cupra concept. Btw, I’m sure they used a love potion on me for that model! Cupra is known for its sporty-looking and handling cars. Cars that challenge you and make your heart beat faster. So when the Cupra Born showed up and I was asked to take it for a little spin, I couldn’t say no of course. But did the Cupra love potion also work for this Born?
The Cupra was BORN
The Born is the first 100% full-electric Cupra and also the only one for the moment. Originally the Born was a concept car from Seat named after a trendy neighborhood in Barcelona, El-Born. Later they dropped the "El" in the name and decided to give the model to Cupra. I'm not sure if it was a good idea to give the Born to Cupra. I rather think this model would fit more with a brand like Seat than a sporty brand like Cupra. But If it was a Seat, they couldn't go total beast-mode when it comes down to the looks. It must have been a very difficult decision. Maybe even a big battle: Okay guys, should we make it a normal-looking “Seat Born” or a sporty-looking “Cupra Born”? Seat was insulted with the word “Normal” and declared war on Cupra! They all fought as if their lives depended on it and Cupra won the battle! The Cupra Born was Born!
Time to go beast-mode
First of all, we all see it, and I say it: the Born is a Volkswagen ID3 "redesigned" by Cupra. But the ID3 went total beast-mode. The nose got a complete make-over and is more streamlined which makes it way more sportier. It got a really nice diffuser and spoiler and also another thing, typical Cupra, are the copper details on the car.
I drove the Aurora blue one with the 20-inch “Blizzard Copper” rims and the combination is outright stunning. Not to forget! Did you already notice that amazing continuous taillight? How cool is that, I really like it! The car in total does look good, but it’s just not my favorite model when it comes to Cupra in general.
Even the inside couldn’t sweep me off my feet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty and well finished but for me, it’s just a no. When you enter the car and take a seat you immediately feel the great Alcantara seats which have massage function and heating. By the way, they’re really comfortable. The view is also great, in front of you, you have that nice-sporty-looking steering wheel with well-known copper details and all the buttons you could need. But the only problem I have with those buttons is that they’re touch-sensitive with haptic feedback and not actually physical buttons. I don't get it and I don't want it. I tried to crack up the volume a bit, but before I realized it, I was already deaf. Oh, I hate those buttons!
The same frustration came back once I started to use the infotainment system. The screen itself is great, big enough, yet not too big but the software is slow and when I say slow, I really mean sluggish. I wanted to open the menu and I had to wait for a second or 2 and I’m not a patient person. So most of the time I pushed 3-4 times which wasn’t a good idea because the system would just go further in the menu once it opened. It really stressed me out.
I would love to tell you about the amazing camera system but I can’t. The system didn’t work on the car I drove. Probably software malfunction I guess because the camera was definitely fitted. We all know technology doesn't always cooperate with us and those days were my lucky days.
Can you feel the electricity?
I truly hoped the driving would make up for the missed chances on the rest of the car and it partially did. Electric driving hasn’t been disappointing so far and with the Cupra Born the list of fun driving goes on. It’s not the fastest EV I’ve been driving but for a car with 204hp I just had set my expectations a bit too high. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very good daily car, very practical, very comfortable, but just not as sporty as I thought it would've been. As I said, I drove the 204 hp version, which is the most powerful version on the market and in my opinion it needs a bit more power, especially for a sporty brand like Cupra. Okay, you can get a bit more power when you have the E-boost package, you’ll get 231 hp when you choose this option. Although Cupra likes to be sporty, it does the standard sprint to 100 km/h just as fast as the ID.3 (7.3 s). I’m sorry Cupra, I know you could do a whole lot better with the performance and just for fun beat the time of the ID.3 with a little tweak or something.
The same goes for the range of the 58kWh battery. Officially, you're able to drive 425 km but you should be happy with everything around 300km. It’s known for EVs in particular to have a much lower range in real life but with this one, the difference was really big. It all depends on so many factors so maybe it was just the weather, my style of driving or too long distances.
Cupra’s future
The Born couldn’t bring me the chills other Cupra’s did, and in my eyes, it’s just the more brutal and slightly more expensive brother of the Volkswagen ID3. With its price starting from €44.880 (BE) it’s a bit more expensive than his less sporty brother ID.3 €44.135 (BE). Its price/quality isn’t that bad for an EV within its class.
As a big fan of Cupra in general, I really hope the future isn’t going to be fully electric. For me, Cupra will always be sporty-looking models with a roaring sound. So overall, well first try!
