Cupra Tavascan Review (2024-present)

What is the Cupra Tavascan?

The Tavascan isn't the first all-electric car from Cupra, the sporty Spanish brand that was spun off from the more mainstream Seat brand a few years ago. No, it’s the second, after the Born hatchback, which was first introduced in 2022.

It might, however, be arguably the firm’s most important electric car to date. For while the popularity of hatchbacks like the Born is on the slide, the popularity of SUVs is continuing to surge. And, as an all-electric SUV, the new Cupra Tavascan sits in what is very much the booming sector of the UK car market right now, and probably will be for a good while to come.

The Tavascan isn’t your regular electric SUV in terms of design, either. Okay, so there’s not much that’s revolutionary about its slinky coupe-like roofline. No, it’s in the details where the Tavascan crossover catches the eye, and that applies both inside and outside the car, giving a really appealing sense of individuality.

Two all-electric powertrains are offered, a rear-wheel-drive one and an all-wheel-drive one. The official WLTP range figure goes up to more than 350 miles, which is pretty darned good, and most versions come with a sophisticated adaptive suspension system that improves the driving experience markedly. And no matter which of the four versions you choose, you get a generous amount of standard equipment.

The Tavascan competes with coupe-style electric SUV rivals such as the Volkswagen ID.4, Skoda Enyaq Coupe and Audi Q4 E-Tron Sportback (with which the Tavascan shares its MEB platform), along with other rivals such as the Tesla Model Y, Volvo EC40, Polestar 2, BMW iX2 and Toyota bZ4X. More hatchback-like rivals such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 will also compete for your cash.

How practical is it?

The Tavascan’s slinky shape actually does quite a good job of hiding the car’s size, because although it doesn’t look it, it’s actually quite big: about the size of the Skoda Enyaq, in fact. Now, that aforementioned slinky shape means it can’t quite match the Enyaq for practicality, but it gets surprisingly close. The 540 litres of boot space you get is only 30 litres behind the Skoda Enyaq Coupe and 45 litres behind the regular Enyaq, so there’s still loads to play with, and the space is also well shaped and slab-sided. A powered tailgate is also provided as standard across the range.

The entry-level Tavascan V1 has a fairly big lip at the entrance of the boot, and when you drop the 60/40 split-folding rear seats, there’s a sizeable step up to the folded seatbacks, too. In all the other versions of the Tavascan, though, both of these minor irritations are eliminated pretty much completely by the provision of a false boot floor, which also earns you some additional concealed storage (there is a small space for stashing a charging cable under the V1’s floor). It doesn't, however, change the fact that the folded seatbacks lie at a slight angle, leaving you with a partially sloped loadbay.

The slinky roofline doesn’t decimate rear headroom, either. There’s more than enough to keep six-foot-something passengers happy, while the super-generous legroom provided gives even your lankiest loved-ones plenty of space to stretch out. The middle seat of the three in the back of the car isn’t quite as wide as those either side, but it’s wider than they often are, and there’s no hump in the floor in front of it to get in the way of your feet, so carrying three in the back is relatively comfortable.

Up front, there’s lots of space, and lots of adjustment to help both the driver and front passenger get comfy. The interior design is certainly something a bit different: there’s a strange flying-buttress-style column structure where a centre console would otherwise be, that looks like it's holding up the dashboard. It’s made out of hard plastic with a pitted finish that looks almost like the scales of a lizard, so while it’s eye-catching, it’s not exactly a treat for the fingertips. However, there are plenty of soft-touch surfaces dotted around elsewhere for an appropriate feeling of plushness, and various other imaginative uses of colour and texture to keep things interesting.

What’s it like to drive?

There are four different versions of the Cupra Tavascan, the V1, V2, VZ1 and VZ2. The first two have a single electric motor on the rear axle delivering 282bhp, while the VZ versions have an additional motor on the front axle to deliver a combined 335bhp and four-wheel drive. The single-motor rear-wheel-drive cars sprint from 0-62mph in 6.8 seconds, while the dual-motor all-wheel-drive ones complete the same sprint in 5.5 seconds.

We’ve had a go in both, and to be fair, even the weaker version feels like it has a fair amount of zip, both away from the mark and on the move. Press the accelerator like you mean it, and the pickup you feel is strong and instantaneous. There will be very few drivers for whom the less powerful car is not fast enough.

In the Cupra Tavascan VZ versions, the elevation in performance is appreciable, but the difference in pace doesn’t feel as big as the difference in power output would suggest. Both cars feel quick, that’s for sure.

There are suspension differences between the various versions, too, but these follow a different pattern to the powertrain differences. The V1 has a normal passive suspension system, where the V2, VZ1 and VZ2 all have Cupra’s Dynamic Chassis Control adaptive suspension system as standard.

The passive setup has a distinctly firm edge: not enough to feel uncomfortable in most situations, but you feel a persistent tremble from underneath you that puts you in no doubt about the car’s sporting pretensions. Happily, it largely delivers on those, because the body control is tight and the grip is strong, giving a nice, pointy feel at moderate to brisk speeds.

Things fall apart a tiny bit if you’re really going for it. That’s because the Tavascan is too heavy to feel truly agile - even this lightest version weighs almost 2.2 tonnes - and you can feel this weight trying to tug you off your intended line when turning corners briskly, making things feel just a fraction untidy and inaccurate, robbing you of that last layer of dynamic polish. Most of the time, however, this won’t be an issue and, if you can put up with the knobbly ride, then you’ll really enjoy driving the Tavascan.

The adaptive suspension on the other versions doesn’t remedy that overly heavy feeling, but it does tie down body movements a bit better in the racier drive modes, and it makes the ride a good bit plusher in the more comfort-orientated modes. In fact, it’s the extra comfort that makes the adaptive suspension worth having, rather than the extra agility.

In both versions, the steering is nicely weighted and direct, giving you a good level of accuracy. Like most electric cars, though, the Tavascan feels very heavy on the brakes. A good shove of the pedal is needed to get the car to pull up and stop, and if you’re stopping in a hurry for any reason, this can feel a little unnerving.

Technology, equipment and infotainment

The Tavascan range opens with the V1 version, which still gets an impressive amount of luxury kit as standard. The roster includes 19-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, darkened rear windows, keyless entry and go, ambient lighting, three-zone air-conditioning, a heated leather steering wheel, cloth upholstered bucket seats with manual adjustment, automatic lights and wipers, a powered tailgate, a reversing camera, and adaptive cruise control.

V2 and VZ1 versions come with a pretty much identical kit list: the only thing that really differentiates them is that the VZ1 has the additional electric motor and more power. Both take the V1’s list of equipment, and add 21-inch wheels, matrix LED headlights, heated bucket seats with electric adjustment, a panoramic sunroof, an augmented reality head-up display, microsuede upholstery, 360-degree cameras, and the adaptive suspension.

On top of that, all the VZ2 really adds over the VZ1 is leather upholstery, and ventilated front seats. One interesting omission from the standard kit list of all trim levels is a heat pump, which provides more efficient cabin heating in winter, extending your car’s range. Many rival EVs get one as standard these days.

All specs get the same basic infotainment system, which centres around a centrally-mounted 15.0-inch touchscreen, and brings together Bluetooth, DAB, wireless phone charging, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and four USC sockets (two front and two rear). The V1 gets a nine-speaker sound system, while all the others get an upgraded 12-speaker Sennheiser premium audio system.

There’s also a 5.3-inch digital display behind the steering wheel for your important driving information, which looks ludicrously small by today’s standards, especially when it sits next to such a massive central screen. It’s less of a problem in all but the entry-level car, though, because in addition, these get an augmented-reality head-up display that projects all the same information onto the windscreen directly in front of you.

In terms of the central screen, we have the same complaint about it that we do with several other such systems, especially ones from the Volkswagen Group, of which Cupra is a part. There’s way too much over-reliance on the system in an attempt to declutter the cabin design and eliminate as much switchgear as possible, and that makes using it far too complicated. There’s so much going on that finding the function you want is too difficult, and that’s not helped by the ambiguous design of many of the on-screen icons, because it’s not immediately clear what they’re for. Too many of the simplest functions take several taps of the touchscreen: for instance, you can change your cabin temperature without diverting from the home screen, but doing anything more complicated with the air-con - such as changing the fan speed - involves immersing yourself in yet another submenu.

You may find yourself getting irritated by the touch-sensitive controls on the steering wheel, too: they’re too easy to hit by accident, activating a function you didn’t intend.

Cupra Tavascan running costs

The Tavascan is not a cheap car, which is no surprise given its performance focus and the amount of standard equipment you get. Prices start at around £47,000 for the entry-level V1 car, and rise steeply to around £54,000 for the V2 (it is much more well-equipped in fairness), and around £56,000 for the extra power of the VZ1. The further upgrade to the VZ2, costing around £61,000, seems steep given how little extra equipment you get.

The official WLTP range you get will vary according to the version you choose, too. All Tavascans have the same 77kWh battery pack (that’s usable capacity, the total capacity is 82kWh), and in the V1, that’s good for an official range of 353 miles. That drops to 339 miles in the V2 on account of its bigger alloy wheels and the weight of its extra equipment. Figures drop further as you progress up the range, with the VZ1 achieving 320 miles and the VZ2 eking out 299 miles. And just like with all electric cars, these figures should be taken as a best-case scenario, and what you get in the real world will most likely be a lot less.

Cupra quotes the Tavascan’s AC charging time at eight hours, but that’s on an 11kW connection, which the car supports. However, the home wallbox chargers that most owners will keep their cars topped up with only charge at a maximum rate of 7.4kW, and on that type of connection, you’ll be looking at more like 11 or 12 hours for a full charge. Assuming that your domestic power is billed at the UK’s national average rate, that charge will cost you around £22, but you can easily cut that in half if your domestic power tariff allows you to charge your car overnight on heavily discounted off-peak power.

Conversely, you’ll pay much more - three or four times more isn’t uncommon - when using public DC rapid chargers. The car supports DC charging at speeds of up to 135kW, and on a powerful enough charging station, a 10-80% juice-up takes 28 minutes.

Cupra Tavascan reliability

Take a look at the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, and you’ll get the impression that you can expect very middle-of-the-road reliability from the Cupra Tavascan. Cupra finished a middling 17th out of 31 carmakers in the manufacturer standings in the study, and while the Tavascan is way too new to have been involved, several models that share its Volkswagen Group MEB platform and technology were. The Skoda Enyaq finished fourth out of nine models in the Electric SUV category, and in the more general Electric Car category, the Cupra Born and VW ID.3 placed seventh and 13th of 18 models, respectively. Sounds pretty average to us.

What is rather better than average, though, is Cupra’s warranty. You get cover for five years or 90,000 miles, which is considerably better than what you get from any other VW Group brand. The battery, meanwhile, is protected by eight-year, 100,000-mile cover.