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Cupra is not the end of Seat. Cupra gives Seat a future and the future is electric. THE FUTURE IS CUPRA

We can set on March 23, 2022 as the day Seat confessed. He did it through his CEO, Wayne Griffiths. That day The statements were pronounced that are on these lines in an event before the press. We didn’t know it yet but it was the first stone of everything that would come later.

Almost three years later, we have climbed into Cupra Tavascanthe great electric car of the brand. The one with whom they want to certify what is coupra and where the company walks. What they want to convey with those five letters that have ended up taking their own shape and an important role within the Volkswagen group itself.

Tavascan Cupra Technical Card

An aspirational car with the feet on the ground

“We know how the electric car market is in Spain, we know that the Cupra Tavascan will not be a car with great volumes but it does help us to demonstrate what Cupra is and where we want to go. It is a car that serves us to project and leave Of course you can expect the brand in the future. “

With these words, those responsible for Cupra explained their illusion with the Cupra Tavascan. We talked about how interesting the car seemed to me, of the risky of the proposal and the originality of it, not so easy to find in the market right now. Cupra risk and cupra, for my liking, wins.

It makes sense to have put all the meat on the grill with this electric car. Right now, the brand has the Ateca and León coupra as reminiscences of its past. On the way they have added the CUPRA BORN Like its first electric car, the Terramar Cupraas a SUV option for those who do not dare to make the leap to this technology, the Formentor Cupralike the great supervants, and now the cupra tavascan as the great car of its offer.

The latter in an electric SUV of 4.64 meters with a Coupé fall and very aggressive appearance in its body, especially in the front. The car shares origin with Volkswagen ID.5 either Skoda Enyaq Coupé But the first impression seen from the outside is that the car has personality, like more or like less.

Those same sensations are transmitted to the interior. The dashboard plays with the shapes and is Absolutely dominated by a central column that leaves from the bottom of the screen and in which the button has been arranged Warning. This arrangement creates a kind of triangle that builds the entire central structure under which the wireless load for the mobile phone and two USB-C shots is located.

The design helps to separate the spaces of driver and co -driver, giving some sports air that is reaffirmed with copper moldings, the drilled upholstery of the doors with those same small triangles and a steering wheel that leaves two physical buttons to change to change the driving modes. Behind, cams manage energy recovery.

It is here where, without a doubt, we have the worst inside. The steering wheel buttons are tactile that we have already seen in other Volkswagen models and that have a haptic response. However, they are not precise, we can unintentionally activate them by maneuvering with the steering wheel and force them to deviate their gaze when we want to select the specific functions.

On the left, we have the tactile light selector (which is also not seen with the naked eye from the driver’s position) and the two physical controls for the control of the four windows (skip from one to another activating and deactivating a button that … Indeed, it is tactile).

Ahead, the 5.3 -inch screen remains that detracts from the rest of the cabin. As in Volkswagen’s models, it gives a worse impression because it is not sheltered (as in the Skoda Elroq) and that feeling of going “in the air” increases the difference in size with the huge 15 -inch panel that it has to the right. The head-up Display is good and reads correctly, as in the rest of the German group models.

It is worth noting the good work with the central screen. Again, we lack physical buttons to control functions as simple as the air conditioner but the tactile panel is now backlit. Of course, the resolution of the screen is very good and the chosen graphics give very good impression, they are worked and well designed.

The car is compatible with Apple Carplay and Android Auto But the layer used by coupra in an operating system that generally has problems seems well designed. The central screen, with widgets that combine with the background in the background gives a feeling of good and pleasant quality. The responses to the touches are good and the speed of the system as well.

Already underway, the Tavascan coupra is a car with good maybe and well tuned. It is not the most sporty car on the market and, in fact, I would have liked Cupra to make a greater effort in that regard. Of course, he plays in a good balance between comfort and good behavior on secondary roads. In fact, I seemed more precise than in other brothers models of the group.

As on other occasions with the electric ones, the brake pedal feels too spongy and artificial, with a first route where we do not find braking. Despite this (and although we would have to try it more in depth to confirm it) it seemed to me that it was a little better refined than in the Skoda Elroq or the Volkswagen ID.5needing less travel to stop.

Playing with the cams, anyway, take away a lot of work and in city it is advisable to pull them because the regeneration is well chosen and the car is very easy to manage only with the right foot.

Of consumption and Adas assistants of driving aidwe can say little. The route was based, almost entirely, on circular on secondary roads and the event was developed in Eco-Rally mode. That is, the one that consumes the least energy is won by what an intensive use of regenerative braking is made in an electric car and the inertia is played a lot (the car is dropped down the car down everything that can be done to not lose speed and spend energy to recover it again, for example). In this way, we obtained spectacular consumption of 13 kWh/100 km but totally unreal.

In these last two sections, we would need a long duration test to estimate real consumption and check if assistance systems work equally as in the Volkswagen ID.5. Of course, to have a better idea of ​​what we can expect from the autonomy of the Tavascan coupra, with an assumption consumption of 20 kWh/100 km we would be talking about 350 kilometers of autonomy without stopping ourselves and loading powers of 135 kW.

As for their prices and versionsit is now available with the following figures:

• Cupra Tavascan Endurance: 210 kW (286 hp) and 77 kWh useful battery. Expected autonomy according to WLTP cycle from 542 to 568 km. From 52,010 euros without discounts or aid (the brand announced a campaign that leaves the car at 38,900 euros if the car is financed and the discount of 8,700 euros of launch is used but not including the aid of a possible new Moves plan)
• Cupra Tavascan Vz: 250 kW (340 hp) and 77 kWh useful battery. Expected autonomy according to WLTP cycle from 512 to 522 km. From 65,060 euros without including discounts of any kind.

Photos | Xataka

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