Words by Donal Byrne, video by Leah Carroll.
Even a little design flair and ingenuity can go a long way in an often bland car market, as CUPRA - the sporty arm of SEAT - has managed to prove in just seven years. It has created a niche within the Volkswagen group by elevating its designs above the often conservative norms within that group.
Creating that sporty identity has paid off. You're unlikely to mistake cars like the new Tavascan and the Terramar for their VW equivalents - the ID 5 and the Tiguan respectively - or for practically any other car on the market at the moment for that matter.
That’s because where others have opted for softer and sometimes predictable designs (something many car buyers actually prefer), CUPRA designers have focused on sculpted, edgy and bolder shapes and added touches like flashes of bronze detailing both internally and externally, with bronze brake calibers, for example. In the main, the approach works really well.
That appealing bronze detailing is very Tavascan in CUPRA’s new Tavascan SUV, which I had a brief chance to drive recently along with other cars from the current range. It’s an all-electric offering, with a 77 kWh battery and a power output of 286 BHP.
It’s closest relatives are the VW ID5 and the Skoda Enyaq, with which it shares its underpinnings.
It has a claimed range of 569 kilometres (the usual caveats about claimed ranges and real world ranges apply) but I suspect that because the car weighs in at 2.3 tonnes getting near that claimed range will be a challenge.
Despite the coupe profile, the car is roomy - even for taller drivers and passengers, and you won’t find yourself cramped in the rear either.
Prices start at €44,365 for the Tavascan and go up to €55,765 for the version I drove, which had extras such as 21" alloy wheels, dynamic chassis control, a panoramic roof, heated front seats and a 360 degree camera.
Both versions do have, however, the central and dominating 15" infotainment screen and a 5.3" driver’s display. There is a noticeable lack of physical buttons - something I’ve complained about before but expect to be reversed in future car design.
The boot has a decent 540 litre capacity boot but rear seats appear to fold only in a 60/40 split, which may not suit some owners. A 40/20/40 split is far more practical for bigger loads.
For a car of its weight, it can still manage to get from 0 to 100 k/ph in 6.1 seconds but that’s one sure way to get towards an empty battery in a hurry.
The ride is noticeably firmer than other similar VW group models but again this is something CUPRA engineers have put a deal of effort into to make the car distinctive in its driving characteristics. Again, it works because you get to enjoy a degree of driver feedback you won’t find in many other EV’s.
The other model of note was the new Terramar, a sporty SUV hybrid that has a combined output of 272 horsepower and offers similar driving feedback. And the profile of the car is characteristically original too.
CUPRA is making a rather bold claim for the car’s ability to deliver in purely electric mode. It says the car can travel 118 km’s without using a drop of petrol, a claim I’m looking forward to testing in the near future.
The Terramar starts at €46,500 and the version I drove comes in at €57,190. This has extras like adaptive cruise control, fancy bucket seats to add to that performance feel, a rear camera and bigger and more attractive alloy wheels.
There's a 13" infotainment screen and a 10.2" cockpit display.
As you can see from the pricing, CUPRA models are not inexpensive and the extras really do push out the purchase price. As an example, the Tavascan's sibling - the VW ID 5 - starts with a price of €39,121 and it’s a very good electric family car.
Given an uncertain global car market and the financial burden EV transition, I think if the folks at SEAT proposed a niche sporty sub-brand today it probably wouldn’t get off the drawing board.
With these two new models, you do pay for your innovative styling and those chassis dynamics.
