Cupra Tavascan V1 long-term test: new electric SUV hits the high notes

Verdict

It’s too early to deliver a full verdict on the Cupra Tavascan until we’ve lived with it for a bit, but on first impressions it’s a refreshing choice that fits well into the expanding electric SUV market. It’s certainly comfortable and practical, but we’re not inspired by the brakes and will reserve judgement on the range until the weather picks up a bit.

• Mileage: 1,786
• Efficiency: 3.3 miles/kWh

The Tavascan is Cupra’s second fully electric vehicle, but also its first electric SUV. Rather than this leading to a dumbing down of the brand’s sporty styling, the car’s performance-led design has moved it further away from its siblings in the VW Group.

Underneath, it may share its MEB platform, batteries and motors with the Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron, VW ID.5 and Skoda Enyaq Coupé, among many others, but the bold styling inside and out is what makes it really stand out from plainer-looking SUVs.

I think the exterior looks great. The front has an aggressive appearance, and the grille is large, but the addition of the trademark Cupra copper details and indents within the black panel add interest. The raised central panel  
on the bonnet also adds to the sporty feel, and although the Cupra logo on the nose is a little large in my opinion, it looks good when it’s lit up. The profile continues the theme with sharp creases and a swooping coupé roofline. This ends at the main feature of the aerodynamically efficient rear: an LED light bar that stretches across the back of the car and incorporates another illuminated logo.

There’s a lot of Cupra branding all over the exterior, but it took a while to notice the only mention of Tavascan, which is located discreetly within the rear lights.

The bold styling themes continue inside and it feels rather upmarket, even though there is a lot of plastic around. The textured finishes and flashes of copper elevate the overall look, but personally I find the wider bronze band across the dash, with ridged black plastic above, a step too far.  It’s practical, though – the floating centre console doesn’t intrude too much on interior space, the cup-holders are narrow but take my travel coffee cup perfectly, and the storage bin behind them is large.

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The Tavascan comes in four trim levels, and our car is the entry-level V1 variant. It still comes with a decent amount of standard kit, though, including a heated steering wheel, four USB points, a powered boot lid with a ‘virtual pedal’, wireless full-link smartphone integration and wireless charging. There is also a rear-view camera, along with intelligent parking assist, plus it has the same safety features as the higher trim levels.

The paint on our Cupra is the standard colour of Atacama Desert. It’s metallic but comes at no extra cost, and I think it’s a more interesting choice than the grey or white silver options, both of which bring an additional charge. In fact, the only extra on our car is the £1,335 Winter Pack, which adds a heat-insulating windscreen, a heat pump and heated front seats, something I’ve already been very happy about choosing as a result of the recent cold snap.

We haven’t had the car long, so we’ll certainly have more to say in the coming months about the driving experience and how the range stacks up in winter, but our initial impressions are mainly positive.

It’s very comfortable on the road, quiet on the motorway and it coped well on the bumpy, twisty New Forest surfaces during a recent trip over there. The quoted range for our rear-wheel-drive model is 352 miles. When we fully charged it after starring in a road test (you can read about how it stacks up against the Ford Capri, it showed 283 miles, but we had some awful weather that day, so it may well improve over time.

One thing we aren’t so sure about are the brakes, which are taking some getting used to. They respond quickly enough when you first press the pedal but seem to fade, which sometimes means you have to reapply pressure more urgently than feels comfortable to bring the car to a stop.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.