I got to test drive the demo car at Stoneacre yesterday. They also have an Aurora Blue one in the showroom, and the colour is just awesome! This with an Aurora Blue Dinamica interior, Blizzard wheels (and Skyline runroof) would be my choice.
Jumping into the car, the radio was on so I reached for a volume knob forgetting of course there isn't one. This sort of theme with controls not being there or being stupidly different is going to continue, so not a great start! For some reason the steering wheel controls were unresponsive as well, possibly just a problem with this car, but 2 touches of the infotainment screen got the sound muted.
I found it quite easy to get comfortable in the seat with leg support adjustment for reach too, a first for any Seat/Cupra I've been in. Heated seat controls were via the infotainment screen, with confusingly just a blanking plate where you would have thought they would be. Steering adjustment is also good. Mirror adjustments are plain weird, and I'm sure you'll read all about this door control all over the Internet!
Setting off from a very busy car park and immediately the accelerator calibration feels too aggressive even in Comfort mode. In 'D' drive mode there is no regenerative braking at all, but this is actually a useful mode for the open road. Switching to 'B' mode is not a single peddle driving mode. There's some regenerative braking but the car does not come to a halt. Auto hold was enabled, but this made drive creep unintuitive around town and urban areas. I'm sure spending more than 40 minutes with the car would provide this familiarisation, but it is very different to what I'm used to.
Steering is dead, totally devoid of any feedback. Luckily the weighting is customisable, and I preferred the heavier Performance mode. Speaking of this, Performance mode also sharpens the throttle a tiny bit and also adds a small amount of regen braking (confirmed on the dash when lifting off). Turn in is what I would expect for this class of car and having driven a few EVs now (the previous being a Mach E), this is definitely a pleasant drive. Those new to EVs are really going enjoy the thrust up to 40, but those with current ~300PS Cupras are going to notice a lack of acceleration beyond this. It won't matter for most. I found the car reasonably easy to place, in fact being narrower than my TTS, I found myself nearside mirror checking and repositioning quite often! Surprising really, from the outside the car is hiding its lack of footprint, and parking this car twice assured me it would fine to live with daily with great visibility all round except for the postage stamp rear window, albeit there is a useful camera.
This car is quiet, even for an EV. Don't mistake the tyre noise for being loud, it's just relative to not much else to compete with. There were a few rattles over the bumps and broken tarmac, but some of that was the trade plate in the back. It was composed and even accelerating with vigour away from junctions wasn't upsetting the balance, the RWD working excellently here even though conditions were damp to wet in places. Attempting to add some entertainment in the form of Planet Rock was quickly dismissed! The sound from the standard system was simply terrible. It will be fine for podcasts, navigation instructions, sports and Radio 4. I haven't heard the BeatsAudio system so couldn't comment if it's worth the £450 upgrade. And then the car seems to unravel. The heater controls at the bottom were simply useless necessitating a switch to the climate controls for any of these functions. This might not be a deal breaker for me because I tend to set and forget with climate in general, but with EVs you do tend to use them a lot more often to try and balance being comfortable whilst saving energy, so anyone who likes a toasty cabin and is concerned about this needs to check the £925 heat pump option.
I'm not sure if it was me but I did miss a heated steering wheel. In EVs this is a must have in my opinion as it's recommended to use this and heated seats rather than heating the cabin to temperatures we're used to with ICE cars. It works! Well, if present.
Regenerative braking needs to be more aggressive and in my case didn't really improve as the battery went down; the energy recovered requires available battery capacity of course. Like most EVs, as the pace increases around town, as long as you make use of the 'B' mode regen, energy consumption doesn't increase so much, but this changes when limits increase to 70MPH with the best I could achieve being around 3 miles/kWh. This is somewhat expected of course, EVs do suffer in this respect. So a quick calculation, running down by 50kWh (leaving a little wiggle room to find the next free rapid charger!) gives a real world longer distance range of ~150 miles. If you're planning on charging at home, this is going to be perfectly fine for almost everyone except the travelling salesperson, although unless you're blessed with a 3-phase supply at home (for 11kW), charging with off-peak rates will be over more than one night. For this reason, seriously consider not having the larger 77kWh battery unless you really do need it for frequent regular longer journeys. Solid state batteries are not going to be arriving until at least the end of the decade so don't expect range to increase substantially just yet. Yes the American competition is better in this respect already but that's also a pricier vehicle with other issues I won't go into here.
After parking and looking around the cabin is a little confusing. There are so many materials and finishes that it seems overly busy rather than a calming environment that an EV generally is by nature. The plastic texture on the door cards extends some of the exterior design language inside yes, but they could have paired this back and extended some of the fabric areas that are nice to the touch and aesthetically pleasing. The plastic on the dash is good but not extended to the tops of the doors for example. Audi tends to keep scratchy plastics to lower areas of the interior and I thought Cupra would have followed this by now. It's disappointing.
Then there's the price. Actually I think it represents great value considering where the current competition is right now but it's time for the government to wake up and move the £40K tax threshold in-line with 5 years inflation. This is going to mean adding a few useful options will push list values beyond this point adding £2'550 over 5 years to the cheese and wine fund rather than repairing the dire roads it should be destined for. Otherwise I don't believe anyone is going to begrudge paying this considering the otherwise zero tax and much cheaper running costs compared with ICE cars. Rant over!
So am I going to trade in my 310PS ICE car for this Cupra. No, it won't work for my use case, I actually found the controls annoying to use at best, throttle control in 'B' mode doesn't allow for single peddle driving and the calibration is just not there compared to other BEVs. However it is a quiet, comfortable and capacious place to be and enough enjoyment to have for most, just not for the hot hatch enthusiast Cupra was aiming at. This is a first attempt, albeit a sportier styled ID3, and all the better for it in my opinion; I would recommend testing this for anyone thinking of making the swap to BEV. For some this will make absolutely perfect sense, and my local dealer has already taken 11 orders for the Born. I hope that one day Cupra can bring us a more emotive driving experience in the form of a BEV. VAG - you need to drive the competition to understand how others manufacturers are achieving this and give Cupra the opportunity to excel as they could do unshackled.
Jumping into the car, the radio was on so I reached for a volume knob forgetting of course there isn't one. This sort of theme with controls not being there or being stupidly different is going to continue, so not a great start! For some reason the steering wheel controls were unresponsive as well, possibly just a problem with this car, but 2 touches of the infotainment screen got the sound muted.
I found it quite easy to get comfortable in the seat with leg support adjustment for reach too, a first for any Seat/Cupra I've been in. Heated seat controls were via the infotainment screen, with confusingly just a blanking plate where you would have thought they would be. Steering adjustment is also good. Mirror adjustments are plain weird, and I'm sure you'll read all about this door control all over the Internet!
Setting off from a very busy car park and immediately the accelerator calibration feels too aggressive even in Comfort mode. In 'D' drive mode there is no regenerative braking at all, but this is actually a useful mode for the open road. Switching to 'B' mode is not a single peddle driving mode. There's some regenerative braking but the car does not come to a halt. Auto hold was enabled, but this made drive creep unintuitive around town and urban areas. I'm sure spending more than 40 minutes with the car would provide this familiarisation, but it is very different to what I'm used to.
Steering is dead, totally devoid of any feedback. Luckily the weighting is customisable, and I preferred the heavier Performance mode. Speaking of this, Performance mode also sharpens the throttle a tiny bit and also adds a small amount of regen braking (confirmed on the dash when lifting off). Turn in is what I would expect for this class of car and having driven a few EVs now (the previous being a Mach E), this is definitely a pleasant drive. Those new to EVs are really going enjoy the thrust up to 40, but those with current ~300PS Cupras are going to notice a lack of acceleration beyond this. It won't matter for most. I found the car reasonably easy to place, in fact being narrower than my TTS, I found myself nearside mirror checking and repositioning quite often! Surprising really, from the outside the car is hiding its lack of footprint, and parking this car twice assured me it would fine to live with daily with great visibility all round except for the postage stamp rear window, albeit there is a useful camera.
This car is quiet, even for an EV. Don't mistake the tyre noise for being loud, it's just relative to not much else to compete with. There were a few rattles over the bumps and broken tarmac, but some of that was the trade plate in the back. It was composed and even accelerating with vigour away from junctions wasn't upsetting the balance, the RWD working excellently here even though conditions were damp to wet in places. Attempting to add some entertainment in the form of Planet Rock was quickly dismissed! The sound from the standard system was simply terrible. It will be fine for podcasts, navigation instructions, sports and Radio 4. I haven't heard the BeatsAudio system so couldn't comment if it's worth the £450 upgrade. And then the car seems to unravel. The heater controls at the bottom were simply useless necessitating a switch to the climate controls for any of these functions. This might not be a deal breaker for me because I tend to set and forget with climate in general, but with EVs you do tend to use them a lot more often to try and balance being comfortable whilst saving energy, so anyone who likes a toasty cabin and is concerned about this needs to check the £925 heat pump option.
I'm not sure if it was me but I did miss a heated steering wheel. In EVs this is a must have in my opinion as it's recommended to use this and heated seats rather than heating the cabin to temperatures we're used to with ICE cars. It works! Well, if present.
Regenerative braking needs to be more aggressive and in my case didn't really improve as the battery went down; the energy recovered requires available battery capacity of course. Like most EVs, as the pace increases around town, as long as you make use of the 'B' mode regen, energy consumption doesn't increase so much, but this changes when limits increase to 70MPH with the best I could achieve being around 3 miles/kWh. This is somewhat expected of course, EVs do suffer in this respect. So a quick calculation, running down by 50kWh (leaving a little wiggle room to find the next free rapid charger!) gives a real world longer distance range of ~150 miles. If you're planning on charging at home, this is going to be perfectly fine for almost everyone except the travelling salesperson, although unless you're blessed with a 3-phase supply at home (for 11kW), charging with off-peak rates will be over more than one night. For this reason, seriously consider not having the larger 77kWh battery unless you really do need it for frequent regular longer journeys. Solid state batteries are not going to be arriving until at least the end of the decade so don't expect range to increase substantially just yet. Yes the American competition is better in this respect already but that's also a pricier vehicle with other issues I won't go into here.
After parking and looking around the cabin is a little confusing. There are so many materials and finishes that it seems overly busy rather than a calming environment that an EV generally is by nature. The plastic texture on the door cards extends some of the exterior design language inside yes, but they could have paired this back and extended some of the fabric areas that are nice to the touch and aesthetically pleasing. The plastic on the dash is good but not extended to the tops of the doors for example. Audi tends to keep scratchy plastics to lower areas of the interior and I thought Cupra would have followed this by now. It's disappointing.
Then there's the price. Actually I think it represents great value considering where the current competition is right now but it's time for the government to wake up and move the £40K tax threshold in-line with 5 years inflation. This is going to mean adding a few useful options will push list values beyond this point adding £2'550 over 5 years to the cheese and wine fund rather than repairing the dire roads it should be destined for. Otherwise I don't believe anyone is going to begrudge paying this considering the otherwise zero tax and much cheaper running costs compared with ICE cars. Rant over!
So am I going to trade in my 310PS ICE car for this Cupra. No, it won't work for my use case, I actually found the controls annoying to use at best, throttle control in 'B' mode doesn't allow for single peddle driving and the calibration is just not there compared to other BEVs. However it is a quiet, comfortable and capacious place to be and enough enjoyment to have for most, just not for the hot hatch enthusiast Cupra was aiming at. This is a first attempt, albeit a sportier styled ID3, and all the better for it in my opinion; I would recommend testing this for anyone thinking of making the swap to BEV. For some this will make absolutely perfect sense, and my local dealer has already taken 11 orders for the Born. I hope that one day Cupra can bring us a more emotive driving experience in the form of a BEV. VAG - you need to drive the competition to understand how others manufacturers are achieving this and give Cupra the opportunity to excel as they could do unshackled.
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