Cupra Born review

The Born seems to have got the choice bits of the ID.3 (such as the rotary gear twister on the dash), and it's offered with suede-like Dinamica bucket seats and big 19 or 20in alloys in a bid to reflect its sportier character. That at least has been successful. The DCC adaptive chassis control is the preserve of the VZ only.

Is it sporty though?

The standard car isn't. We’re yet to try the updated entry Born but 188bhp doesn’t exactly rewrite the laws of physics. Nor does the 228bhp motor that comes with the bigger battery – 0-62mph in those takes eight and seven seconds flat, respectively.

Ramp it up and it goes around corners flat and level, but there’s no more engagement than that, so you get to the end of a good road and just, kind of… shrug.

But the VZ is much better, right?

Good grief yes. The VZ gets a more powerful motor maxing out at 322bhp, all of which still goes through the rear wheels to maintain that inherent sportiness. 0-62mph? A heady 5.6s. And it feels more urgent than that.

More importantly though, stiffer springs and anti-roll bars, bigger tyres, adaptive damping and retuned brakes give the Born some proper tools to work with, and the end result is the closest thing to an electric hot hatch this side of the Hyundai Ioniq 5N. And that's a £66k car. Yikes.

The most impressive thing about the VZ is the grip; you'd never know it weighs close to two tonnes. But turn in and it demolishes corners like it's on rails. Prod the accelerator and the front tucks in; throttle response is immediate, the steering direct and precise. Golly is it a hoot on a twisty road. Sure, the ride is a bit firm, but you won't notice because you'll be having too much fun.

The DCC (which offers 15 different levels of suspension firmness) also makes a big difference, allowing you to vary the suspension stiffness over a wide range, but we found ourselves erring more towards the comfort settings than the sport, as that seemed to suit the car better.

And if I only want an everyday hatch?

The Born is right up there. The rear-wheel drive layout and low-mounted battery pack means it turns in sharply, gets a neat little turning circle and limits bodyroll well. And while the pre-facelift car lacked a proper ‘one-pedal’ driving mode, that wrong has now been righted, allowing you to edge through traffic on the regen without the labour of constantly shuffling your right knee.

Otherwise the throttle is precise, so it’s an easy, nimble car to guide around. Although it's a little hard to judge where the extremities are and the forward visibility is restricted by those sweeping A-pillars. Mind how you go at roundabouts...

Talk to me about refinement.

Like the ID.3, the Born repels road noise well. Even at motorway speeds you’ll only really notice a touch of wind noise. Next.

Is it efficient?

Very good question. We’ve only sampled this latest version of the Born on the streets of Madrid, rendering the 3.7 mi/kWh we achieved on our test route pretty much meaningless… unless you live in central Madrid.

As the powertrains haven’t changed much, you can look to the 3.0 to 4.0 mi/kWh we registered in the pre-update cars as a fairly good guide of what to expect. Fitted with the 58kWh battery you can bank on 180-240 miles of range depending on the weather; in the 79kWh one you should be able to breach 300 miles. Maybe without sampling the launch control though, eh?

Home charging is possible at up to 11kW, fast DC charging can be done at either 105 or 183kW depending on which battery you’ve got. Either way it’s a 30-ish minute stop, because the smaller cell means there’s less of it to charge. But you’d sussed that out already.