CUPRA Tavascan V1 286 Review

What is it?

The Tavascan is CUPRA’s first all-electric SUV, with two power outputs: 286PS and 340PS. We have the 286PS version in V1 guise in the Atacama Desert colour. It comes with some welcome, unique styling, but will it hold up against its rivals using the same VW MEB platform? Or will it turn into the Tavascan’t (see what I did there?… I’ll get my coat).

Exterior

So, here we go again, another great looking car from CUPRA, this being their first full Electric SUV coupé, like my other reviews I’ll probably reference my current car which fits in quite nicely as it’s the seven seater SEAT Tarraco, roughly the same length (~10cm) and not much difference in the width either.

For the exterior, the CUPRA wins hands down, which makes me a little sad inside, as the CUPRA was only with me for a week. Now I’m back to my ugly SEAT (in comparison), let’s break this down bit by bit, starting with the face of the car.

When I first saw this car at the press release in the UK head office, it felt a little Porsche with some unique styling mixed in, but since having the car for a wee,k I don’t see that mix anymore, it feels more unique than anything else, which is a good thing.

So, the front, it’s got loads of aggressive lines with curves mixed, including the now dubbed “shark nose” design being the most prominent.

Also, a quick one that’s worth a picture, the car has some functional air vents for aero, I assume, they look pretty cool, normally these sorts of things don’t do anything and are for show.

As per usual with CUPRA, we’ve got some lovely copper accents. This time they’ve stepped up their game with the illuminated CUPRA logo on the bonnet, it’s a great little talking point. Still, I wonder how much it costs to replace if the LED ever goes (sorry, I like to think of the worst to be prepared!).

Like other cars, including the Golf, you get the LED strip under the bonnet, which typically runs between the headlights. On the Tavascan, it’s no different. Still, they have toned down the brightness, making it a highlight instead of an in-your-face daytime running light (DRL), which I think sets it off nicely.

Moving round the front corners, we find the grey bumper moving round nicely, creating that wide mouth effect we used to see in the big Audi’s, I’m just happy there’s no chrome on the front end like you find in other sport versions, I think chrome feels like the cheap option now. I’d actively stay clear, black is the new cool, right?

Following on from the front bumper we find ourselves looking at some pretty tall wheel arches, inside that gap is one of the few V1 mild downsides, the alloys, as the base model spec it’s only got 19 inch wheels and not in CUPRA Copper, yes, only 19’s, after owning a car with 20’s on I can tell you that there is a fair difference in tyre price, I’d be happy with the 19’s if I had to but the V2 / VZ1 wheels look better!

Moving onto the side of this 4.6m long beast, whilst the front had plenty of lines to show off, the side of the car feels more geared towards that aerodynamic vibe, things are flattened and very few “pokey out” bits, I like that even now with a brand new model they’ve kept the classic SEAT line from the top of the front wheel arch to the rear lights with that small gap in the middle.

I also see that CUPRA decided with the door handles that don’t work as handles as we know it, it’s just a pressure pad like a modified modern boot release, whilst looking great but I did find them a little flimsy, almost like they were bending in my hand as I opened the car. I’m not that heavy-handed.

On the plus side, they’re all LED lit for ease of use in the dark.

Just above the rear wheel on the driver’s side, we have the petrol cap, oh wait, I mean charging port, I’ll get there eventually! Standard sort of stuff with the regular recharge socket and a pull-out cover for the bottom section allows you to use rapid chargers.

Last but not least, we have the rear end, we’ve got some of those vent shapes that remind me of the SEAT Leon MK3 CUPRA R, which I like.

In the middle we have CUPRA lettering in copper, this looks nicely placed and big enough to be seen from cars behind, below that we have the rear diffuser which in this case isn’t much to look at, I always wondered how much big fin versions in modified cars contribute for better airflow, comment below if you know what happens and at what speeds for a decent sized diffuser.

Now, a big thing as of late with newer cars is “how big is your LED bar?”, “Oh mine goes over nearly halfway from each side”, “Oh I’ve got dynamic indicators” or “Mine has the LED going vertically instead of horizontal”, well bar the last one, this CUPRA has it all!

I’m pretty sure they still call them the Coast to Coast lights, whilst being a full bar with the CUPRA logo in the middle (which massively beats the previous square logo on the older CUPRAs). The “3 triangle-light signature” we see in the front headlights repeated at the back sets off the rear nicely, and I’m all for it!

Interior

This could go both ways for anyone reading this, as style is subjective with most things like this, but I love it.

I’m a big fan of the big spine in the middle that houses one singular button (hazards), it takes out so much from my current petrol car, yet even though most of it is unusable in the new state, I didn’t find myself low on space for anything.

The phone charging mat sits under the spine, yet my Google Pixel 7 Pro didn’t charge both times I put it on there, so I’m not sure what happened there.

Moving to the driving position, something I’ve never experienced in a car, my seat was as low as it could go, and the steering wheel was as high as it could go. It was still hitting my knees at specific points in my journey, even more so when getting out. Now I’m not small at 6ft2, but I’m not super big either at 13 stone, turning into a mild annoyance. Just something to be aware of if you are tall.

Next up the steering wheel, it’s the same style we’ve seen before, sadly it’s got awful haptic feedback touch buttons, they felt a little different as they almost had a slight push on them but using the volume buttons quite a bit I very quickly got into the state of hating them even more.

Sometimes they felt right, then other times it was like it hated you pushing any buttons at all, with misreading what I’d pressed, or sometimes I’d end up pushing another button instead.

I will say that I love the CUPRA and Drive buttons like all the fancy models got in the older CUPRA models (if I remember the older 1.5L TSI Formentor didn’t get the CUPRA profile at all, which felt like a cop out as you had a CUPRA car).

So, in my opinion, the general layout for the interior revolves around the centre spine. Still, a big part of the interior I think which caught my eyes was the passenger side, a lovely big copper accent with a grill type effect above and some mini spines under giving it a nice punch without being too silly, a great way also to hide the air vents, which in recent cars has been fun (don’t ask me about the SEAT Ibiza).

Next up, we’ve got the door cards. On the driver’s side, you’ve got the usual window controls for the whole car; you’ve also got the lock and unlock buttons, including the child lock, which is helpful to have from the front controls.

Moving slightly up, we’ve got that copper styling running the full length, this time being part of the door handle, which is a nice touch.

Other bits include the carbon fibre style plastic, which my better half didn’t seem too keen on, and the door bins, which could hold most things you’d need, like water bottles, etc.

Onto the rear, now as a family sized car you’d need big space for 1 of 2 things, first is long legs for those children who had way to much miracle grow when they were young, happily I can confirm the space in the back is impressive, I’m 6ft2 and the driver’s seat is setup for me to do a long drive. I’ve got loads of room, more than my Tarraco, although that needs to squeeze in 7 seats to be fair.

Secondly, you may need rear-facing baby seats, which I have two of in our Tarraco, so I transferred one of the 360 seats to the Tavascan. I first noted that the ISO mounts are very nicely hidden behind a plastic bracket, which seems to double up as the leaning point for the mount on the baby seat, keeping some of it off the car seat itself.

With the extra space in the leg room area, I found getting things set up so much easier instead of having to lean over and battle with the sliding fixings. I would love to say that with two baby seats, you could still fit a normal-sized human in the middle, unfortunately, I tried and it didn’t end as comfortably as I’d like, but then our 360 swivel chairs may be bigger than everything else.

One thing worth mentioning is the shape of the door entry vs the Tarraco, as this is a coupé, it’s got that weird rear end thing I guess, instead of a full-fat door, see below to see the difference in my car with slightly more head room when messing about.

Connectivity in the rear is pretty standard these days, you’ve got the twin USB-C ports and digital aircon options, but in terms of storage, the boot shows off a nice spread of space, managing to fit 10 bags for life and a cat litter with space to spare. Or if you’re not shopping, you could also fit in a side-by-side double pushchair and still easily get 3 or 4 rucksacks in there.

Driving

Now this one’s a strange one as this is normal the Engine and Sound section but needs must, note that I’m going from a 1.5 TSI 150PS Tarraco to this 286PS instant power machine, I’ve said it before and I’ll most likely repeat it, even though this is the V1 spec model, it’s got the goods, the only other full battery car I’ve driven was the SEAT Mii, not exactly living in style or performance but boy did that Mii give me a big smile on my face, this Tavascan on the other hand felt way more serious with how the power is delivered, in the words of John Wick everything felt “Robust, Precise”, feeling that power was an enjoyable experience. It didn’t stop for the whole week.

So, I guess I’ll start with the driving side, you get in the car, place your bum on the nice seats and press the brake pedal, the vehicle comes to life with a pleasant hum of energy, you put the car into reverse using the right stalk on the steering wheel, that’s right, the gear selection is on what I would class as the wiper stalk, next up you put your foot down and the magic happens.

The drive is very smooth and comfortable compared to my FR Sport Tarraco, which hits the bumps pretty hard on the 20-inch wheels, as this car has 19’s, the tyre height is increased, I assume, making things nicer. Still, as it’s a V1, it doesn’t have Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC), so they go for the nice suspension over the sporty side, which makes sense.

Driving at low speeds, you get the normal humming noise outside the car, letting those pesky pedestrians know you’re around, and if I’m honest, no one even looked at me when I drove near them like no one cared, so that’s fun.

So far, so good. This car around town doing standard stuff is a breeze, and parking is a little more fun because this car feels bigger than the Tarraco, but the Tarraco is 2.2cm wider, who knew.

I did notice that because of the rear end shape, the visibility out the rear window is poor at best; compared to the Tarraco, which is not a coupe, the visibility is night and day different.

Getting the car up to national speed limits is even easier, almost too easy, even with a 0-60 of 6.3 seconds, it feels like a rocket, not quite like my SEAT Leon Cupra 300 ST 4Drive, which felt brutal. Still, it was smile-inducing, I’ll explain it this way, when you put your foot down coming off a roundabout into a 60 and you’re with someone else that’s somewhat not a child at heart, they will give you that look, the one that says “really?!”

The power surge is progressive and fruitful, enough almost to be classed as an addiction, I did find that I had to keep a very close eye on the speedo as without gear changes my brain didn’t know what speed I was doing, generally with a petrol you get an idea with the car changing up and down the gears.

So, electric wins everything, yes? Not so fast, whilst this car is super quick it still lacks that specific something that a petrol head requires, a connection of some sort, I’m not sure how to explain it, electric still feels like a gimmick, I’m sure that will go with time, when no petrol cars exist in the year 2100 but as a lover of vehicles I feel that the electric power is welcome but it doesn’t tick every box for me, most, but not all.

So, are you thinking about the dreaded dead battery half way down the motorway without a charger nearby (which is exactly like running on fumes in your petrol and slightly worse in a diesel), this V1 model with the 77kWh Endurance battery (which seems to mean less power delivered to the wheels) going for a 60% Urban,  30% Country Roads and 10% Motorway driving gets you 354 miles, now as these are stats given by CUPRA we can probably take 5-10% off that as no one who has this is going to be a goody two shoes all the time let’s face it, so let’s say 320 miles.

For me, that would last nearly a month of travelling locally with the occasional trip to see family. The image below shows a journey from Leicester to Oakham in the UK. It’s about 26 miles with a few overtaking spots, but is mainly a single-lane 60-mph road.

I got 4.6 miles to a kWh; the battery holds 77 kWh. So if I only did this trip driving as I did, I would get just over 400 miles, now admittedly I drove very carefully on this trip with regen where I could, so it’s best case and I doubt you’d want to replicate it as that would be a very boring journey!

One thing worth noting is that the CUPRA website hosts a little mileage calculator based on your driving area and what wheels you have. Now the all the cars above the V1 can have the 21” wheels, if you choose the V1 wheels for the setup above you get 354 miles, if you jump to the Copper Katla 21” wheels it drops by 3 miles which is fine (you can still get these wheels on the Endurance battery in the V2). But then if you go a step further and choose the 21” Etna wheels which is VZ2 only I think it drops to 290, take off 5-10% and it’s around 265 which doesn’t feel as nice, all be it you’re getting that extra power (340PS instead of the 286PS) which takes off up to 1.3 seconds from your 0-60 and gives you 4WD. But dropping below 300 miles would make me wonder a little more, my old MK3 Leon Cupra 300 ST 4Drive got nearly 400 miles to a tank with a 4.7s 0-60mph.

Technology

So, you’ve made it this far, and you’re wondering if some classic SEAT/CUPRA traits have come through into the technology side of this new Tavascan. Well, it’s not enough to annoy me too much.

First up is the new Infotainment screen, it’s so big that when I got back in my Tarraco I felt like I had small man syndrome! The resolution was crisp, and the extra space was very much welcome for things like Waze and having split screen over music, Waze and battery stuff.

The screen feels slick, and they’ve made some updates on the significant issues we’ve seen in the older cars lately. During my time with the car, I didn’t have a single issue to report based on just the screen, this included my phone connecting to Wireless AA, Bluetooth and just general use flicking through the screens.

I guess I do have one issue, and it’s hardware and not software. It seems they used the same resolution rear camera as previous models, as that quality looks quite a bit degraded over my Tarraco, for example, which looks fine on the smaller screen.

Next up are the driving aids, so, lane assist, anyone who’s read my reviews before know that I LOVE Lane assist, haha, I wish that were true, I find myself cursing at the car (in my head if the children are in the car) whenever I get to a single lane which then splits into two lanes or reversed when two moves into one.

The car somehow has a massive panic and tries to steer me into the other lane, which can be mildly irritating when others are trying to overtake. I also wasn’t an enormous fan of the speed sign recognition software, if things get more automated.

You’re driving through our town we have the signs that flash around a 20mph when the local school is starting or finishing the day, this car sees it as oh you should be going 20mph and starts beeping at me that I’m speeding and any release of the pedal slows you down to 20mph, not ideal also if you pass some lorries with signs on the back with silly numbers on like 90kph.

Ever since having a Ford Focus MK3.5 Titanium X with all the goodies I’ve missed the complete heated package it gave me during cold times, now, since the patent for heated screens has passed we can see it in this lovely CUPRA, heat screen, steering wheel and seats, oh la la, warm bum, hands and being able to see within a minute is fantastic.

Also, on the windscreen, I barely noticed the regular lines showing the heating elements, which is nice; I always found the older screens to be weird at night, showing up everything with oncoming lights. I will say that these goodies do come from the Winter Pack that was on this car for £1,335. Note that on the V2 and above, you get heated rear seats for the same price.

Unfortunately, for the heat pump, I never got a chance to use it as I didn’t have that much cold weather, which is a shame, but the setup looked easy enough, and with the CUPRA app, you can do it remotely as well, which is nice.

Now some auto related things, mainly the lights, with the V1 you get the standard LED lights and not the fancy Matrix headlights, thankfully the DRL’s still give that excellent three triangle look from the front, the auto function I need to talk about is the auto full beam at night, it’s a handy feature but I came across two issues.

Firstly and I’m not sure how you would fix this but anyone at a T junction joining your road gets blinded until you can see their headlights then full beam is disabled, secondly, the full beam shutoff isn’t quick enough for me, I find myself going to turn it off because it feels uncomfortable to leave them on with oncoming traffic, minor problems but an annoyance none the less.

Let’s talk sound, now being the lowest spec model, this car comes with the stock seven infotainment speakers and not the Sennheiser kit, comprising 12 speakers you get on the V2 and above. I’ve not heard the upgraded version myself. Still, I’ve been told it’s good, the V1 version is OK, I guess, it could do with a little more substance and listening to Heavy metal does seem a little on the tinny side even with tweaking the equaliser.

One thing I did find out is the quality difference between a DAB radio station, which sounded good to my audio over Android Auto, when I switched over, I noticed a drop in quality, even though I was connected via a cable and not wireless, it felt like I was being cheated somewhat.

I enjoy a bit of interior lighting, and the CUPRA Tavascan doesn’t disappoint. Wherever you point at this car, there’s an LED.

After looking at the spec sheet it seems that if you could spend a little more and grab the V2 you’d get a few goodies thrown in for your troubles like Dynamic Chassis Control, Top down camera view, panoramic sunroof and the 12 speakers mentioned above to name a few things, are they needed to enjoy this car? I don’t think so, would I get the V2 or save money? I’d get the V2, mainly because I love technology and my current Tarraco has some of these included, so I wouldn’t like to drop them just to switch to an electric car.

What’s it like to live with?

Running Costs
If, like me, you’d do minimal long-distance miles (10% of your total), this car would be ideal! You wouldn’t need to charge it that often, and you’d get all the benefits like the heat pump, so no need to warm up the engine and a big car to carry the family.

The downside is that filling the battery up at 3rd party stations is nearly as expensive as getting petrol which isn’t ideal (85p p/kWh at the time of writing), getting it done at the house with a decent charger or using solar is around 25p p/kWh without being on a tariff for charging cars, using the solar option could make it near enough free if you don’t do many miles.

Just had a quick check on services and this came up for service plan which seems to be every 2 years, all in for £529 looks a little over the Tarraco as this is showing up at around £22 a month for 2 years, make sure you wait for black Friday and get the discount.

CUPRA e-Care 4 – £529.00

• 2 x Inspection Service
• 2 x MOT
• 2 x Brake Fluid
• 2 x Pollen Filter
• 1 x Front Wiper Blades Set
• 1 x Air Con Service

As for Tyres, if you get Michelins on the 19’s it’s around £135 a tyre, if you jump up to the 21 inch wheels it’s between £260 – £300 per tyre (PS4s at the top end), ouch. Admittedly, the bigger wheel is a performance tyre whereas the 19s are EV-ready versions, but that’s a significant price increase and worth noting.

Rating – 8/10

Comfort

I couldn’t fault the comfort of this V1; going over speed bumps was pleasant, and hitting corners with a bit of speed felt as it should. I prefer the cloth seats over leather purely because there is no suitable temperature for leather to have that first sit down; they’re either too hot or too cold.

Rating – 9/10

Power

This car has it in spades; it might not be a high number for power, but it gives it so quickly and efficiently that you don’t realise that. If you get the endurance battery with this V1, it’s got a decent range on it and I don’t think it sacrifices much apart from the mod cons for those who want extra tech, I’d like to stay north of 300 miles range, so I probably wouldn’t get the higher powered model.

Rating – 8/10

Cost

Who loves to spend money? I thought so, would you say £48,000 is loads for a car? If yes, this might not be the car for you, maybe you could lease it, I just did a check and you can get the V1 with the Winter Pack and the same paint for £524 a month (3 years, 1 month up front and 10k miles), which to be honest isn’t bad at all for what you get.

The Tarraco FR Sport 1.5 TSI, when new, was around the £42,000 mark, I think, but that’s a SEAT and a much slower engine, based on that, it’s priced reasonably.

Rating – 7/10

Styling

Love the styling, I’ve never liked the V1 trim wheels previously, and I don’t even mind them on this car, the body lines are to the point, and the face is big and bold, you get extra light-up fancy bits like the front grill and CUPRA badge on the bonnet.

I don’t think I could give anything a negative, maybe being super picky, but overall I’d be happy to own this car with the looks as a primary decision-making factor.

Rating – 9/10

Tech

I know Tech is very broad and I could waffle on all day, but I feel that the new style CUPRAs are very much better than the 1st generation we’ve had. I’ve seen some issues regarding the wrap-around lights, but that was fixed after an update from the dealer.

I’m a big fan of the new infotainment screen, and the auto stop before a roundabout is quite handy, the lane assist is still pants, but I think it hates me. I think for the spec, you get for being the baseline spec, this car gives you more than enough to play around with.

Rating – 9/10

Would I buy one?

It’s the million-pound question, I’d have the Tavascan, but I’d go for the V2 I think, although I’ve just checked. The lease price goes up to £656 (£55,000 OTR) for the V2 with the Endurance battery and Winter pack, that’s a pretty steep increase for what seems to be cosmetic and driver aid upgrades (give or take), with that in mind I’d probably take the V1, yes I just changed my mind mid review but there you go!

What would you choose or have you chosen? Let us know in the comments below.

Test Car Key Specifications

• Trim: V1
• Exterior colour: Atacama Desert
• Length: 4,644mm
• Width (including wing mirrors): 1,861mm
• Height: 1,597mm
• Wheelbase: 2,766mm
• Kerb weight: 2,178kg
• Winter pack £1,335
• Interior: Pure–soul black cloth bucket seats
• Boot space: 540L
• Battery type: Lithium-ion
• Engine: 77KwH 286PS
• Battery (kWh): 77/82
• Battery voltage (V):240-408
• Charging time AC 11kw 0-100%:8hrs
• Charging time DC 135kW 10-80%:28mins
• Max. Power: PS @ rpm: 286 @ 3,748-6,500
• Max. Torq (kWh/100km)WLTP: 15.2-16.0
• CO2 (WLTP) g/km: 0
• 0-62 mph: 6.8
• Top speed: 112ue:Nm @ rpm: 545 @ 0-3,679

Jimbobcook

• View all 12 articles