2023 Cupra Born new car review

This new European car maker has launched its striking electric car Down Under and it brings a spicy flavour others can’t match.

New car brand Cupra is looking to turn the electric car market on its head with the feisty new Born hatchback.

Here are five things you need to know about the new Cupra Born.

Cupra is the latest brand from the Volkswagen Group.

It’s not your average hot hatch

Some would argue it’s not a hot hatch at all. After all, a seven-second dash to 100km/h isn’t that compelling when you compare it to similar priced petrol hot hatches, including Cupra’s own Leon VZ, which is about $5000 cheaper and reaches 100km/h six-tenths quicker.

The Born is also missing some of the things that enthusiasts have come to expect from hot hatches. The most obvious at first glance is the lack of dual or quad exhausts poking out of the rear diffuser. Inside, boy racers might pine for a manual gear knob or steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. Then there are the aural cues. There’s no spitting or crackling exhaust when selecting gears, just an eerie silence punctuated by tyre noise.

It’s a playful car to drive that’ll appeal to owners of petrol-powered hot hatches.

That doesn’t mean it’s boring to drive

The Born may not delight all the senses, but it still delivers thrills in a way a conventional hatchback can’t. The hatch feels quicker than Cupra’s claim, thanks to the instant torque off the mark and the uninterrupted surge of the 170kW/310Nm single-gear electric motor. It also feels composed and nicely balanced through the corners, with communicative steering and reassuring grip. The added weight of a sizeable battery pack means the Born isn’t as nimble and light footed as the Leon but the rear-drive set-up makes it fun to drive on a winding road. The only real weakness is the brakes, which don’t deliver the stopping power or pedal feel you’d expect of a performance car.

It looks the part

It’s a handsome car compared to other EVs on the road today.

Early EV arrivals in the Australian market haven’t been everyone’s cup of tea in the styling department. Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Kia’s EV6 are acquired tastes, while the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y won’t win any beauty contests. The Born on the other hand is well proportioned. Slightly smaller than these rivals, its dedicated EV platform nevertheless manages to liberate an impressive amount of rear leg room. The cabin is well presented, with an inviting mix of hi-tech screens, sporty styling cues, copper highlights and interesting surface treatments. You can, however, see evidence of cost-saving if you look hard enough. Cloth seats in a circa-$60,000 car serve as a reminder that EVs are still costly compared with their petrol rivals.

The tech works well

The interior is simple but has plenty of hi-tech features and coloured highlights.

A largish centre screen integrates well with smartphones, while a small digital driver display behind the steering wheel gives all the vital driving information without risking sensory overload. Nice touches include a wireless phone charging pad, four USB-C ports, digital radio, auto high beam and ambient lighting. The crash avoidance tech works well without being overly intrusive, while the top-view camera is handy for parking. If you’re after a touch more luxury, a $2900 interior package includes power adjustable, heated and massaging bucket seats in a sporty blue hue, as well as a nine-speaker Beats audio unit.

Range anxiety isn’t a genuine concern for city slickers

The Born has a claimed driving range of more than 500km.

The 82kWh battery delivers a decent range of more than 511km, although if you order the $2600 performance pack with bigger wheels, wider tyres and adaptive suspension the range drops to 475km. On a 200km round trip that was mainly freeway – where EVs are less efficient – we used roughly 18kWh/100km. That translates to roughly 430km range, which suggests 500km is easily achievable in city driving. The Born can accept up to 11kW from a wall-mounted AC charger and up to 170kW from a fast charger. That translates to an overnight charge at home and a quickish refill if you’re lucky enough to find one of the faster chargers around.

Originally published as 2023 Cupra Born new car review