Cupra Tavascan review

The Tavascan is Cupra's take on the electric crossover-coupé genre, and is named after a faintly underwhelming Spanish village nestled in the Pyrenees. What it’s not named after is the location in China where it's actually built.

It pushes the stylistic tropes further than any of its peers: this is a VW ID.5 (or Skoda Enyaq Coupé or Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron, take yer pick) done up to the nines. Indeed to the 10s.

The silhouette and proportions are no different from rivals, mind. See those VW Group siblings, or the Tesla Model Y, Nissan Ariya, Peugeot e-3008, Volvo EC40, Kia EV6 or Lexus RZ450e.

But none of them have panelwork with such frantic swelling and wedgy creasing, or so much area of real and fake grilles, or such fashion-forward lighting. The whole confection is a surprisingly close derivative of a concept car Cupra showed in 2019.

Electric only I take it?

Yup, it's on the VW Group's MEB platform, so you know the drill. In this case the choices are simple: one battery size, 77kWh usable, connected to either single (RWD) or twin (AWD) motors.

All Tavascans get the same rear motor, a 282bhp permanent-magnet synchronous job that does most of the heavy lifting.

The all-wheel drive one adds a simple 107bhp asynchronous induction motor to the front axle to offer a combined 335bhp total. Its advantage, cheapness aside, is that it makes little drag torque when it's not providing drive.

Both models are rated at 402lb ft of torque and have the same 112mph top speed. There’s a difference in acceleration of course – 0-62mph in 6.8 seconds for the entry car and 5.5s for the twin-motor. Which is some 100kg heavier.

What’s the range like? 

WLTP range on smallest available (19-inch) wheels is 355 miles for the RWD and 323 miles (20-inch) for the AWD.

Those numbers are better than the ones for the notionally similar ID.5. That's because aero drag is low – Cd 0.26, albeit with big frontal area – and at the rear is the VW Group's very latest AP550 motor and inverter unit, as seen on the impressively efficient VW ID.7.

We'll get into the meat of real-world efficiency over on the Driving tab of this review.

The smallest wheels obviously benefit range and ride, but look a bit silly compared with the much cooler 21s on the other cars. Choose between style and substance as you see fit.

So is it as sporty as it looks?

Well, rivals have problems. They mostly ride badly – the Tesla Model Y especially, but also the Nissan Ariya – or handle like unleavened dough. It's only really the Kia EV6 and Volvo EC40 that strike a satisfactory balance.

And now the Cupra too. Its standard adaptive dampers do a good job of keeping matters under control when you're scuttling along, but de-stress the ride when you're not. The steering's progressive if numb, and once you've got all that mass turned into a corner, the rear-biased balance of the motors' efforts makes it more engaging than you'd expect.

Paddles control the regeneration to give you something else to occupy yourself. The brake pedal itself, mind, isn't as sharp and predictable as the accelerator. Which is a pity.

We haven't tested the RWD version yet, but we suspect that'll be just as satisfying to drive and spare some money for the optional winter pack that bunldes in that efficiency boosting heat pump.

Does the shape kill the space?

Not in any of the important ways. The sloping rear glass rules out seats-down transport of wardrobes, but the boot itself beneath the parcel shelf is very much full-sized. Headroom in the back is fine too, as well as leg space.

As with the outside, Cupra's designers and colour-and-trim teams have been given a surprisingly free hand in here. But one of their headline features, the central spine between dash and console, takes away space for what airlines call 'small personal items'.

And if you're worried about the VW Group screen system, well this has their latest software: biggest screen, fastest processor and reconfigurable quick access screen buttons. Not as good as physical buttons or climate controls, no, but we managed to go hours at a time without yelling rude words at it.

An electric coupe SUV is an acquired taste, especially given so many of them major on being brashly in yer face rather than understated or elegant. The Tavascan definitely isn’t the latter, but if you can stomach the spangly, illuminated badges, it's one of the best-realised cars in the class.

It looks like it was always meant to be a coupe-style car, and you don’t get any sense of diminished practicality. The boot is a decent size and there’s a lot of room in the back; it's sporty enough to keep drivers happy, yet still comfortable; the screens more than do the job.

Plus, people have pretty much stopped saying 'Cupra? Never heard of it.' Which saves you time explaining what it is.