Cupra has just presented its second 100% electric model after the Born, the Tavascan. It is an electric SUV with rather attractive lines, with an interesting autonomy, but with some questionable technical choices.
Launched with great fanfare in 2018, the Iberian firm Cupra has not been idle in the space of five years. She who derives from sports models from Seat even seems to have taken the ascendancy, since the majority of new products are now released at Cupra and no longer at Seat.
Design: a not-so-compact SUV
Cupra is therefore presenting its second 100% electric model after the Born. Here is the Tavascan, an electric SUV with rather attractive lines. The Spanish SUV, with a strong Germanic accent, is 4.64 meters long, 1.86 meters wide and 1.60 meters high.
The front is quite elaborate and aggressive, with a large “mouth” that hosts a black band with relief elements that give dynamism to the whole. Matrix LED headlights with three triangular elements accentuate the personality of the model.
The rear part is a little more consensual, with in particular a large light strip that runs across the entire stern.
Designed in Barcelona and built at its Anhui plant in China, the Tavascan is based on the Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform, which has already spawned other models like the Audi Q4 e-tron, Skoda Enyaq and or again the Volkswagen ID.4.
A plush and technological interior, but…
The sporty and high-tech side is also found inside, with in particular that big 15 inch screenthe largest ever mounted on a model of the Spanish firm.
The problem is that Cupra has carried over a very annoying element found on other similar models of the Volkswagen group, namely the famous backlit bar allowing you to adjust the volume of the radio and the air conditioning, a element anything but ergonomic. But at least it’s backlit, which is better than Volkswagen’s electric cars before the ID.7.
The infotainment system can be managed via voice command, while the interface is customizable and is compatible with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. A small 5.3-inch screen sits under the driver’s eyes and acts as an instrumentation screen.
The car features sports seats with integrated head restraints and made of fabric made of 90% recycled polyester or recycled microfibre.
The Cupra Tavascan embeds several interesting technologies, starting with adaptive cruise control, lane keeping (enough to offer level 2 autonomous driving), automatic emergency braking (also at intersections) with pedestrian recognition and cyclists and the Car2X system which allows to “communicate” with other cars and infrastructures in order to be constantly “connected” with what is happening on the road.
Two versions offered
The Iberian SUV is only available in electric. Two versions are available: Endurance and VZ. The Cupra Tavascan Endurance has a single rear electric motor delivering a power of 286 hp and a torque of 545 Nmwhile the more powerful variant has two electric motors for a total of 340 hp and 679 Nm.
The performance of the VZ version is comparable to that of small sports cars, especially on 0 to 100 km/h, with 5.6 seconds claimed on this exercise.
Both versions carry a battery with a capacity of 77 kWh. Cupra announcement 550 km range in WLTP cycle for the Endurance version and 520km for the Vz.
Several driving modes are available: Range, Comfort, Performance, Cupra and Individual, while the paddles on the steering wheel allow you to adjust the regenerative braking with five degrees of intensity.
The limits of the Volkswagen group in terms of architecture
If, in terms of numbers, the Tavascan is one of the good students in the category, this is less the case when it comes to fast charging. The car is based on a 400 volt architecture, which limits the charging power to 135 kW.
And the cars of the Volkswagen group are not ready to accept more since the development of the future platform with the architecture of 800 volts has been delayed. Cupra, however, announces about 7 minutes to recover 100 km and a 10 to 80% achieved in less than 30 minutes. Which is in the middle high, it seems that the charging curve is well optimized.
For comparison, a Tesla Model Y Propulsion, which is not the fastest either, can accept up to 170 kW, while a Korean model like Hyundai or Kia can easily climb to more than 200 kW.
The Cupra Tavascan will arrive on our roads next year. Pricing has yet to be announced, but is expected to be slightly higher than the Skoda Enyaq and Volkswagen ID.5, while slightly below the Q4 e-tron’s pricing. So we imagine a base price of around 45,000 eurosand up to more than 60,000 euros for a well-equipped VZ version.
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