Cupra’s new EV is reborn on the roads

3 Oct 2026

Ian Lamming is stunned by the latest EV

This is a first, in fact it’s two firsts.

The other week I drove an electric car from point A to point B, a distance of 80 miles, during which time the range-o-meter dropped by 120 miles.

Excessive but not atypical with this genre.

Today the drive is 77 miles so I’m expecting the range to drop more than 100, especially as this is a performance model, namely the Cupra Born VZ.

But I’m shocked, no pun intended, when I arrive at journey’s end to discover it has only used 47 and somehow I have manged to make up 30 miles. What an unexpected and most welcome treat.

I’m as light on the throttle as a ballet dancer on thin ice and have the car’s regenerative braking dialled up to the max, but that is impressive by any standard and shows it’s worth avoiding the battery-sapping ways of high-speed highways.

The other first – can you have two firsts or is the second first a second? – is the wonderfully unobtrusive nature of the dreaded keep lane assist.

For the first time ever I leave it in place because it only gently steers the car and can be ignored without any histrionics.

The touchscreen, another bugbear on EVs, is wonderfully intuitive and responsive on Cupra’s latest version of the Born.

Plumbing my phone into the Bluetooth takes seconds, as does finding my favourite radio station and the 100 per cent range is 320 miles, so I’m a happy boy – it doesn’t take much, you see.

For those of a negative disposition please stop reading now because I’m about to radiate goodwill towards Cupra’s first born EV.

It still looks smart, very sleek and compact, with new large alloys, short overhangs and a stealth paint job with attractive copper accents.

There are new bumpers front and back, a new front grille and 3D lights to give it visual depth.

The ‘Transformers’ badge tells you immediately what it is so you’ll have some idea what to expect in the interior.

But the top spec VZ model surprises again with superb sports seats, soft touch contemporary materials and enough Alcantara to cover a cow, if you wanted a suede cow that is. The sound system is Sennheiser and absolutely brilliant as a result – let’s hear those show tunes, baby.

The other thing to positively glow about is how the new Born drives. It isn’t just fast, it is also refined, balanced, polished, and it oozes finesse.

Down below, the large battery is low and centrally mounted so the Born’s centre of gravity must be somewhere near Australia and the balance of the car is perfection.

It feels absolutely planted to the road and corners flat, like a train, with no rocking and rolling through the bends, which can be taken at greater speed as a result in perfect safety.

The ride is magnificent too. Sporty cars generally have hard, harsh, unforgiving suspenders but the Born masks the worst vagaries of our lumpy, holey roads with consummate ease.

Lightning quick helm responses and limpet-like grip make the Cupra an utter delight to drive down country roads. You may never use a motorway again.

Performance is electric – well it would be – and the 79kWh powerhouse hurls an instant 326PS at the road, more than enough to be a riot.

There’s so much oomph there never seems to be any reason to thrash the youngster which is why it has such a decent range.

Only the brakes take a bit of getting used to and need a decent shove to activate, at which point they have plenty of power and feel.

So far I have resisted going full electric because of charging and range issues but the Cupra is so good that I could very easily becoming a Born again EV fan.