Cupra Raval review

Fun, but not scary. That’s the conclusion. The Raval rides very well even on 19s (other wheels are 17s and 18s) – although we’ve only driven it on quite smooth Spanish roads thus far – and the DCC and ride height changes don’t make it hard enough to really pitch it into a corner like you might in something more overtly sporty.

There’s still a fair amount of movement. But sometimes that’s actually useful; it feels like you’re being a bit rally, but it’s all under 50mph. The e-diff is the useful thing here, mainly because you don’t immediately unweight that inside wheel and just spin up the one without traction. It’ll torque steer a bit, move around a bit, generally feel like it’s misbehaving within certain parameters. It was actually lifting an inside rear wheel on hairpins, which is Fiesta ST territory, and not something you expect from an EV.

Switch off the ESC – which isn’t something you can do in a lot of cars these days – have it in the correct mode and do a ‘turn-in and lift’ shocker and the back end will even mooch towards the outside of a corner. And yes, that did surprise us a little bit. Ok, a lot. But it was fun.

EVs are often rapid, is this?

There’s also an e-launch mode, but that doesn’t really hit like you think from an EV – but then again 0-62mph in 6.8s just isn’t neck-snapping these days. In fact, if you need to get going, you’re better off just flooring the thing and cracking on. Mopeds – used to traffic light dominance – don’t really like the Raval, which is always childishly amusing.

So it’s not a sportscar and the differences in the modes are marginal, but if you wanted a small hatchback EV with a touch of spice, you got it. Cupra is carving out a little niche for itself – and although we’re loath to endorse any kind of marketing spiel, it does feel just a touch rebellious in context of what it is.

And what about the range, does it stack up?

If you want to get all sensible for a minute, there’s efficiency to be had here. In town, the Raval was in its element and the range-o-meter barely seemed to want to move, giving over 5.0 mi/KWh. That dropped considerably when out on the quicker Spanish roads and motorway, but we were still looking at 220 miles of range all-in.

That’s for the biggest battery (52kWh) and the most power output (222bhp), too. So these new platform cars certainly seem to be capable. The circa-200bhp version with the bigger battery and less range-hurting driving aids would get a bit more.