Cupra Tavascan Driving, Engines & Performance

Top Gear

5 days ago

Driving
What is it like to drive?
Acceleration is brisk, but not with that step-off jolt some fast EVs give you on the first micron of pedal travel. That's fine. Who wants to be slammed in the back of the skull by the headrest every time a traffic light goes green?
More importantly, the acceleration is enough to give decent overtaking gumption, and to give the tyres something to think about on the exit from a corner. In numbers, the AWD version is 5.5 seconds 0-62mph.
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The front motor is called into play when rear traction is close to its limit, but in any case it's the weaker of the pair. Bottom line, this feels rear driven. A point you can emphasise by selecting a sports AWD mode which defers the front motor's arrival, and a sports setting for the ESP. You can also tauten the dampers.
We're glad to say there's now a screen shortcut to turn off the electronic assistance features. The lane keep can yank at the wheel when the road lines are inconsistent, and the speed limit warnings are irritating too.
On motorways the lane centring and radar cruise work well and smoothly, although the displays could do more to reassure you by telling you what they're up to. What about in the corners?
With the right settings, the Tavascan is definitely more amusing than its rivals. You can use the regen paddles to slow it progressively, but even so too much ambition at the start of a tight bend will see you lost in understeer and steering wheel numbness. That's your 2.3 tonnes right there.
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But then when you add the power it feels engaging, giving you a sense of the tyres working for you. The steering is precise and well weighted. The brake pedal is a bit soft underfoot, with a mild sense of delay as regeneration hands off to friction, but which of its rivals isn't like that? I hope they didn't ruin the ride?
The Tavascan copes well with bumps, with the caveat that it's a particularly firm ride overall. A button on the steering wheel cycles between drive modes, which affects damping among other things. And a second one shortcuts you to the Cupra mode that puts all settings to their most aggressive.
Cupra has lowered the ride height by 15mm compared to the related VW Group MEB crossovers, and made adaptive dampers standard with the AWD version. And done its own software for steering and brakes and damping and ESP. And given the option of light 21-inch wheels. It all helps. What's the charging like?
Peak DC recharge rate is 135kW which isn't too fancy, but Cupra says it can sustain that for a long time, so you can make good use of, say, a 150kW charge post and get from 10-80 per cent in as little as 28 minutes.
There's three-phase AC charging, but disappointingly it's only 11kW not 22kW, so you're still taking eight hours to fill the battery from empty. That said, 7kW is likely the maximum power your home can deliver anyway. So call it 11 hours on one of those home or street charge ports from dead flat to 100 per cent juiced. And efficiency? How far can I really go on that battery?
We drove the range-topping VZ2 AWD for a couple of hundred miles or so round a selection of UK roads during warm weather and got... 3.6 mi/kWh out of it. Not amazing, but we've seen a lot worse.
That would make for total range of 277 miles against a promise of 323 – and that'll drop in the winter, especially without the (non-standard) heat pump.
If range anxiety is a thing you suffer from, stick with the RWD Tavascan: that'll get close to 300 miles real world.
Highlights from the range the fastest 250kW VZ2 77kWh AWD 5dr Auto [Winter Pack] 0-62 5.5s
CO2 0
BHP 335.3
MPG
Price
£62,115 the cheapest 210kW V1 77kWh 5dr Auto 0-62 6.8s
CO2 0
BHP 281.6
MPG
Price
£47,285 the greenest 250kW VZ2 77kWh AWD 5dr Auto [Winter Pack] 0-62 5.5s
CO2 0
BHP 335.3
MPG
Price
£62,115