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The CUPRA Tavascan shares its platform with a number of other EVs but it aims to be sportier to look at and to drive, yet it still offers a practical official range of 339 miles, along with a spacious interior.
The Volkswagen Group is certainly maximising the use of its MEB platform. It’s used in the Volkswagen ID.4, Volkswagen ID.5, Audi Q4 e-tron and Skoda Enyaq, as well as in the Ford Explorer and Ford Capri. It also now appears as the base for the CUPRA Tavascan, along with the Group’s battery and electric motors. So is the Tavascan sufficiently different from the other Volkswagen Group MEB platform products?
The CUPRA Tavascan certainly looks different from its Volkswagen Group family members: it’s more curvy and more sporty on the outside, with details such as air ducts and large 21-inch wheels. The interior also benefits from more creative design input, with some interesting styling including copper trim details and what looks like some form of futuristic carbon fibre exoskeleton at the bottom of the centre console. Although this looks quite dramatic, it’s not that practical, as it prevents easy access to the storage area behind it including the USB sockets.
The Tavascan is 4,644mm in length with a large 540-litre boot and space under the floor to store charging cables.
Underneath the CUPRA styling is the familiar Volkswagen Group 82 kWh (77 kWh net) lithium-ion battery.
The CUPRA Tavascan is built in China.
Many aspects of the Cupra Tavascan driving experience are shared with the other Volkswagen Group family members built on the same platform. Our test car was the Tavascan V2 model with an electric motor producing 286PS and delivering rear-wheel drive. Rear-wheel drive means a more rewarding driving experience than front-wheel drive, the latter also being prone to wheelspin in EVs due to the high levels of torque from electric motors. However if you’re looking forward to making the most of the rear-wheel drive platform for some drifting, you’ll be disappointed, because the Volkswagen Group’s traction control system locks down any adjustability in the chassis.
But the Tavascan has (slightly hidden away) options on the touchscreen to select Sport mode for the Electronic Stability Control (ESC), or even to switch it off – the latter has to be done when the car is stationary, and you’ll get a message saying that this mode is only meant for closed circuits. Sport mode still doesn’t allow a great amount of adjustability, and of course we obeyed the touchscreen message and didn’t try the ‘ESC off’ mode on the road…
The Tavascan features dynamic chassis control, and compared to other MEB models, Cupra has tweaked the Tavascan’s suspension to give a slightly firmer feel, and the steering is a bit sharper – both helping to create a more sporty driving experience.
One end product of this, combined with the large 21-inch alloy wheels and relatively low profile tyres, is that ride quality over roads with large potholes can be quite harsh. However the Tavascan retains decent primary ride comfort on smooth roads, and overall refinement is excellent, although the large wheels and tyres can generate some road noise on certain surfaces.
The rear-wheel drive Tavascan V2 has a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 6.8 seconds, which is perfectly sufficient, although not blisteringly quick. You can get more performance, but you’ll need to opt for the VZ model with all-wheel drive, which delivers a more rapid 0-62 mph acceleration time of 5.5 seconds.
So the Tavascan delivers a more sporty driving experience than, for example, a Volkswagen ID.5, but the MEB platform and the car’s 2,178 kg kerb weight means that even with sporty tweaks, the Tavascan is never going to be truly agile and it still feels more at home on motorways and A-roads rather than the tight bends of B-roads.
The Tavascan comes with a choice of four drive modes which can be selected via a very conveniently positioned button at the bottom left of the steering wheel giving the options of Range, Comfort, Performance and Cupra. There’s also a similar button on the bottom right of the steering wheel; if you press this it changes the drive mode straight to Cupra (or back to Comfort if you press it again). You might imagine that the Cupra drive mode reduces the interference of the ESC system, but you still need to go into the ESC settings to select Sport or switch it off fully.
The gear selector – on the right-hand side of the steering column – gives you the options of D or B (the latter for increased brake regeneration), and helpfully you can also change the level of brake regen via steering wheel-mounted paddles – although there’s no information about the resulting level of brake regen on the driver’s display.
One area for improvement is the Tavascan’s brakes. The ID.4’s brakes don’t have much feel and don’t inspire confidence in terms of braking effectiveness, and it’s a similar story with the Tavascan’s brakes, which isn’t ideal for a car that has more sporting intentions.
Despite the more creative design, there are many aspects of the Tavascan’s interior that will feel familiar if you’ve driven a Volkswagen ID.4. There are virtually no physical buttons on the dashboard; the large central touchscreen features some climate controls along the bottom, and underneath are slider controls for cabin temperature and volume that are virtually identical to those on an ID.4. The latest Volkswagen ID models now have an infotainment system with improved shortcut buttons, but this hasn’t been implemented on the Tavascan, which has some shortcut buttons at the top right of the touchscreen, including for home, apps and vehicle, but some of the standard shortcuts that most people want, such as nav, aren’t there. The Tavascan features an augmented-reality head-up display.
Like other Volkswagen Group EVs, if you get out of the car for a second it switches itself off and you have to reselect all of your driving settings.
The CUPRA Tavascan V2 77KwH 286PS has an official WLTP electric driving range of 339 miles. After a week on test, the real-world range was averaging 288 miles. The Tavascan V2 has a good WLTP energy efficiency figure of 4.1 miles/kWh.
The Tavascan’s maximum rapid DC charging rate is 135 kW, which should deliver a 10% to 80% charge time of 28 minutes. A 0% to 100% charge using an 11kW AC charger – most commonly found at workplaces in the UK – should take eight hours.
The CUPRA Tavascan is available as V1 and V2 trim levels with rear-wheel drive and 286PS, and as VZ1 and VZ2 variants with all-wheel drive and 340PS. All models have the 77kWh battery. The Tavascan V2, as tested, is priced at £55,180, which includes Atacama Desert metallic paint and Winter Pack (including heated front seats, heated windscreen and heat pump) – which would otherwise cost £1,335. The Tavascan range starts at £48,685 and tops out at £62,180 for models including the Winter Pack.
The Tavascan is available in four colours: Non-metallic Basalt Grey (£670), Metallic Atacama Desert (no cost), Metallic White Silver (£670) and Metallic Tavascan Blue (£980).
Read the Ford Capri review and book a test drive
The CUPRA Tavascan shares the same platform as the Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5, Audi Q4 e-tron, and Skoda Enyaq, as well as the Ford Explorer and Ford Capri, but it aims to offer a more sporty visual appearance and a more sporty driving experience. Like most other EVs on this platform, the Tavascan is an excellent all-rounder, it’s spacious; refined and comfortable for long journeys; and the official 339-mile range is practical. However the 2,178 kg kerb weight means that the Tavascan isn’t going to be truly sporty from an agility point of view, and the brakes need to perform better to cope effectively with enthusiastic driving. The CUPRA Tavascan V2 is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 9 out of 10.
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