Cupra Born review: High five for Spanish compact hatch

The arrival of the Cupra Born in Australia is pretty significant.

Available to order from today (December 20 2022) and in showrooms from March 2023, the five-door compact hatch is the first Volkswagen Group vehicle to land here based on the German giant’s MEB dedicated EV architecture.

The four-year old Spanish spin-off from SEAT has also beaten the Volkswagen brand to market in Australia with its first BEV (with more to come), although VW will soon be fighting back with a concerted rollout of its own electric vehicles starting with the ID.4 SUV.

The Born’s been the subject of a steady stream of information including our Euro drive as Cupra warms us up for its arrival, but now we get the chance to drive it on local soil.

The upside of that is we are also sampling an Australian spec Born. It’s the very first one to come off the production line in Zwickau, Germany and includes its 170kW e-motor mounted on the rear axle and 77kWh (net) battery pack slung under the floor.

The downside is the drive lasted only five laps of the Haunted Hills race track in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley on a day when the weather gods decided too much rain, wind and frigid air was never enough.

It made lapping the sinuous little roller-coaster circuit a slippery and cautious affair, although not so unique in its circumstance we couldn’t draw some promising conclusions.

A more concrete verdict will have to wait for 2023 and a proper drive on public roads.

Value

The proud boast from Cupra is the Born – which is named after a Barcelona suburb – is the first BEV to go on-sale in Australia with a 5 to start the price and a 5 to start the range claim.

That equates to $59,990 plus on-road costs for the single specification currently slated for Australia and a claimed ADR-certified range of 511km between recharges.

Of course, the real-world price actually climbs beyond $60,000 drive-away in all states. Only in NSW is the price actually lower than $59,990 when the $3000 rebate is considered.

Electric cars the compact Born is priced close to include the Polestar 2 (from $63,900), Tesla Model 3 (from $65,500), Hyundai Ioniq 5 ($69,900) and Kia Niro (from $64,450).

VW has confirmed the conceptually similar Volkswagen ID.3 will be priced under the Born when it arrives in updated form in 2024. However, around then Cupra might have a cheaper version of the Born ready to go too.

Key Born standard equipment includes 19-inch alloys and ‘efficiency’ rubber (there is no spare tyre), keyless entry, a 12-inch infotainment touchscreen, a 5.3-inch instrument panel, wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless smartphone charging, ambient lighting, dual-zone climate control, sports pedals and single-piece front sports seats.

The only options are the $2600 Performance Package, $2900 Interior Package – both of which were fitted to the test car – and Aurora Blue premium metallic paint for $475.

The Performance Package swaps to 20-inch alloys, sticky 235mm-wide Michelin Pilot Sport 4 rubber, adaptive dampers and a four-seat cabin layout as opposed to the standard five seats. Tick this box and the range drops to 475km due to increased rolling resistance.

The Interior Package includes aurora blue Dinamica upholstery, 12-way power adjustment, massage and heating functions for the front seats, the four-seat layout, heated washing jets and a nine-speaker Beats sound system.

The Born will be covered by Cupra’s five-year unlimited warranty. Service intervals and capped price servicing costs will be announced closer to launch.

Interior

The Cupra Born’s nicely hunched and detailed exterior measures up at just 4324mm long, 1809mm wide and 1540mm high, so it’s very much in the compact hatch segment. And yep, it’s not an SUV, there’s no black cladding or raised ride heights here.

Despite those modest dimensions the Cupra is impressively spacious inside. Put much of that down to the MEB architecture and its flat floor that helps liberate extra room for rear seat passengers especially.

On top of that there is a further 385 litres of luggage space in the boot. That’s competitive in the hatchback class despite the e-motor swallowing under-floor space. Perhaps surprisingly for a pure EV with its motor in the rear, there’s no storage under the bonnet, so no ‘frunk’.

The driver nestles into a supportive seat and grasps a reach and rake adjustable leather trimmed and heated steering wheel with mode buttons mounted on satellites.

A small digital instrument panel containing key info like speed, range and consumption sits atop the steering column. The start button and a gear selector column are on the right-hand side.

Modes are Range, Comfort, Performance and Cupra. The selector offers you the choice of D for drive or B for brake (as well as R for reverse and N for neutral … obviously), the latter maximising regeneration (more on that shortly).

The infotainment screen dominates the nicely trimmed dashboard and there are only a few physical buttons with which to control audio and air-con.

This is as per Cupra convention from other models such as Formentor. A lot of adjustments are made by drilling into the touchscreen. It can be laborious.

Storage is generous in the Cupra Born, including door bins, a glovebox and a big, covered bin in the centre console with cupholders. There are also two USB-C ports up-front.

Access to the rear seat is via wide opening doors. There’s no shortage of leg or headroom, but you do feel very enclosed, in part thanks to the tall front seats.

There are overhead grabs, small door bins and seat-back pockets and two USB-Cs mounted in the centre console. But there are no adjustable air-con vents or fold-down armrest with embedded cupholders.

The boot is manually opened and basic in its presentation.

Performance and Efficiency

The Cupra Born’s permanent magnet synchronous motor is mounted above the rear axle with its 170kW and 310Nm outputs transferred by a single-speed transmission and differential.

The standard output for the Born is actually 150kW, but the output is increased via what’s called e-Boost. You don’t have to press a button or anything like that to access it, just the throttle.

Cupra claims the Aussie-spec Born can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 7.0 seconds. But it’s not the fastest Born in the global fleet, as the 170kW motor allied with the 58kWh battery pack is lighter and therefore can zot from 0-100km/h in 6.6 seconds.

This is the version Cupra is considering bringing to Australia as soon as 2024. So not only cheaper but faster too.

The 77kWh battery pack is claimed to consume juice at an average 15.7-17.5kWh/100km based on the WLTP testing regime, which is not too bad.

Cupra is pitching the Born as a bit of hot hatch but combining 170kW with a 1950kg kerb weight isn’t a recipe for scalding performance.

Firing up and getting away in the Born is as easy as press the start button, select D or B and hit the throttle.

From that point on you’re rewarded with a classic e-motor experience, strong response from tip-in throttle, seamless acceleration and silent running.

It’s quick without feeling fast and there’s very little in the way of interaction to control the flow of electricity. It’s more appliance than aggro.

Charging

There’s been a lot of discussions about the limitations of the MEB architecture of late and some of them are apparent when you check the Cupra Born’s spec.

The electrical architecture maxes out at 400V rather than the 800V rivals such as the Hyundai Group’s E-GMP architecture offer.

That restricts the Born to a theoretical maximum DC fast recharging rate of 170kW, via the CCS Combo plug under a flap on the right- side rear bodywork. How close it gets to that we’ll only find out when we hook it up to a charger in the real world.

Cupra claims a 5-80 percent charge time of about 30 minutes.

Nor does MEB provide vehicle to load or vehicle to grid charging.

The maximum AC charging rate is 11kW and that means about seven hours 35 minutes to fully recharge. A 7.4kW charger would take more like 11 hours while a home powerpoint would be something like 38 hours.

The Born does offer regenerative charging when coasting and that effect is maximised in brake mode, but it never feels really powerful in its effect.

It does not have multi-stage tuning of regeneration like the E-GMP cars or a powerful single pedal driving mode.

Ride and handling

As already explained, this brief drive of the 2023 Cupra Born was completed in pretty average conditions.

The Performance Package with stickier tyres and adaptive dampers on our test car added to the sports-tuned MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension.

But really it was more a case of slithering around the track and staying on the bitumen than extracting maximum performance.

There were some satisfying rear-end wiggles as the tyres fought for and then gained grip on the soaked surface with traction and stability control sometimes helping – ahh, rear-wheel drive memories…

And there was some sphincter-puckering sliding as the front tyres slithered across gripless kerbs.

But overall, the impression was of a nicely consistent and cohesive package that benefits from the substantial weight of its battery pack slung low in the chassis helping stability.

It handled neatly, changed direction well, didn’t body-roll notably and responded promptly to the variable ratio electric-assist steering, which weighed up a little as the modes became sportier.

It was nice to sit down so low in car for a change (so many utes these days!), although it was also noticeable how the chunky A-pillar obscured vision when trying to hit the apex in tighter right-handers.

Changing modes in search of suspension character swings proved an elusive target on such a smooth surface.

Overall, the Cupra Born felt keen and tidy. We look forward to a road drive.

Talking point

The Born comes with rear drum brakes – if you’re not sure what they are read a 1960s car magazine or look at the back of a dual-cab ute – but there seemed no discernible impact on stopping performance. Not that the conditions leant themselves to leaning hard on the picks.

Safety

The 2023 Cupra Born comes with the maximum five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, so the logical expectation is it will do the same when assessed for ANCAP locally.

Key Born safety equipment comprises seven airbags (including centre), autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane assist, park assist, side assist with rear traffic alert and exit warning, driver fatigue monitor, pre-crash assist and a 360-degree camera.

LED headlights with auto high beam, tyre pressure monitoring, adaptive cruise and an auto-dimming rear-view mirror are also part of the package. There is no head-up display.

Verdict

While Cupra wants us to think of the Born as a hot hatch in line with its sporting image, it doesn’t quite have that bravura.

Instead, it’s the simplest and easiest of EVs to understand and drive, rewarding with its accessible performance rather than offering overwhelming amounts of it.

Combine that with a spacious interior and decent equipment list and pricing that’s in the ballpark against quality EV opposition, and there’s no doubt Cupra will sell every one of the limited number of Borns it expects to land in Australia in 2023.

2023 Cupra Born specifications

Price: $59,990 plus on-road costs

Basics: EV, 5 seats, 5 doors, small hatchback, RWD

Range: 511km (ADR)

Battery capacity: 77kWh

Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km (guarantee of 70 percent of original battery capacity)

Energy consumption: 15.7-17.5kWh/100km (WLTP)

Motors: 1 rear, 170kW/310Nm synchronous permanent magnet

AC charging: 11kW, Type 2 plug

DC charging: 170kW, CCS Combo plug

0-100km/h: 7.0 seconds (claimed)