Cupra Born

[BertBert]

HTP99 said:

Already have a ZOE OP, what about the Megane E-Tech, great reviews and decent infotainment; Google powered, doesn't have those awful touch sensitive buttons which can be activated easily without realising, has physical heater controls and is of a far better quality and build inside.

Edited by HTP99 on Friday 23 December 23:31

That's a good point. My wife has a specific journey that she frequently does where she wants a higher range which was the attraction of the Born's 340WLTP rather than the 280 of the Megane (and many others in that "class").

But we do get on very well with the Renault dealer so we should at least go and look. And the sales manager is a proper petrolhead with a Porsche problem like me!

[annodomini2]

BertBert said:

annodomini2 said:

Drive it in slow traffic if you can, the first 20% of brake pedal travel is regen only, the mechanical brakes only kick in after this point.

I personally hate this and think it is dangerous as at low speed the regen does not work and it is counter-intuitive that you need to press the brake pedal more to stop at low speeds.

That's a curious feature. So at low speeds the first 20% of the brake pedal travel doesn't do anything?

Yup, at speed it's just regen, which for that behaviour is fine, but at very low speeds it's a problem.

[Pica-Pica]

annodomini2 said:

BertBert said:

annodomini2 said:

Drive it in slow traffic if you can, the first 20% of brake pedal travel is regen only, the mechanical brakes only kick in after this point.

I personally hate this and think it is dangerous as at low speed the regen does not work and it is counter-intuitive that you need to press the brake pedal more to stop at low speeds.

That's a curious feature. So at low speeds the first 20% of the brake pedal travel doesn't do anything?

Yup, at speed it's just regen, which for that behaviour is fine, but at very low speeds it's a problem.

That can be re-coded out, surely?
In a similar way, the initial brake pedal travel on an ICE does not generate boost.

[BertBert]

Pica-Pica said:

That can be re-coded out, surely?
In a similar way, the initial brake pedal travel on an ICE does not generate boost.

Thinking about it this is strange. Brake pedals work by pressure surely, not distance pressed?

[Spidersleg]

plfrench said:

As I mentioned above, give the voice recognition a good try on your test drive next week. It might be good enough to mean you don't need to use the touch screen

This was my way for the first few months on my Cupra leon, now the voice recognition has packed up

[Fastlane]

BertBert said:

That's a good point. My wife has a specific journey that she frequently does where she wants a higher range which was the attraction of the Born's 340WLTP rather than the 280 of the Megane (and many others in that "class").

But we do get on very well with the Renault dealer so we should at least go and look. And the sales manager is a proper petrolhead with a Porsche problem like me!

I went to look at the Megane at our local Renault dealer. One of the senior sales guys is very familiar with EVs and was embarassed to admit that the winter range was around 160 miles. He thought that at best it would be a 200 mile range car in the Summer.

He said itis a lovely car let down by poor range.

Our Kona, in comparison, will do an easy 250 in Winter and 300 in Summer.

[Fastlane]

Fastlane said:

I went to look at the Megane at our local Renault dealer. One of the senior sales guys is very familiar with EVs and was embarassed to admit that the winter range was around 160 miles. He thought that at best it would be a 200 mile range car in the Summer.

He said it is a lovely car let down by poor range.

Our Kona, in comparison, will do an easy 250 in Winter and 300 in Summer.

[BertBert]

Fastlane said:

I went to look at the Megane at our local Renault dealer. One of the senior sales guys is very familiar with EVs and was embarassed to admit that the winter range was around 160 miles. He thought that at best it would be a 200 mile range car in the Summer.

He said itis a lovely car let down by poor range.

Our Kona, in comparison, will do an easy 250 in Winter and 300 in Summer.

ah, that's a shame then
The Hyundai dealer is very close to me, although they are known as a truly terrible dealer and the only one with a worse reputation locally is the Kia Dealer! I'll check out the Kona and the e-Niro

Edited by BertBert on Saturday 24th December 12:33

[TheDrownedApe]

We have had the id3 for 2 years so can say..

Range is lower than expected and the most we have had is about 210 and that's drafting vans on the motorway at 68-70 mph.

Winter, recent drive from Cov to Harlech over Eyrie managed 150 miles full at -8 degrees. But then the range has never affected our use 99% of the time and get 3.4m/kwh with a heavy foot.

Turning off the lane Assist is mostly painless but software bugs with pressing the right button but the wrong menu appearing are frequent (driving style v assist menu).

Also if you have ACC on it can be annoying. It will spot advisory limits and alter your speed to meet them (braking heavily) or spot legal speed reduction limits and again brake heavily, early, to meet them. On the flip side it will increase your governed CC limit to match recognised increase in speeds (say in a temporary 40 and it spots a 50 sign that hasn't been covered it will increase to 50).

Lots of long winded menu options to access normal car one button presses that district your driving too.

There are a lot of annoying features but I have ICE hire cars weekly and aspects of them annoy me just as much. I would buy another one as the minor annoyances are outweighed by the general driving dynamics and the ease of travel.

I guess the Born is very similar but believe it has a few more buttons than the VW.

[16v stretch]

Fastlane said:

BertBert said:

That's a good point. My wife has a specific journey that she frequently does where she wants a higher range which was the attraction of the Born's 340WLTP rather than the 280 of the Megane (and many others in that "class").

But we do get on very well with the Renault dealer so we should at least go and look. And the sales manager is a proper petrolhead with a Porsche problem like me!

I went to look at the Megane at our local Renault dealer. One of the senior sales guys is very familiar with EVs and was embarassed to admit that the winter range was around 160 miles. He thought that at best it would be a 200 mile range car in the Summer.

He said itis a lovely car let down by poor range.

Our Kona, in comparison, will do an easy 250 in Winter and 300 in Summer.

Really depends on your driving and regen opportunities in these cars to be fair. Some of the people buying them to sit at 75-80 on the motorway will be disappointed by the range, especially in winter.

There's a guy on the e-tech group who averaged 4.7mpkwh at 13 degrees @ 50mph. I don't think that's too bad to be fair. Would be nice if it could be specced with the 87kwh from the Nissan though.

[DMZ]

The idea with the Renault is to keep it light with a smaller battery (it has a thin battery), better efficiency and better handling. Nothing beats light, it brings every benefit. I salute their thinking and wished there was more of it but it seems the efficiency claims are not as impressive in reality. Tesla does in fairness manage all of this quite well.

[dibblecorse]

Hi BertBert

Happy to share our experiences, after 3 years with ONTO / EVEZY we cycled through an i3, and ID3 and just sent back the e208 so we have some comparisons t o work with.

Wifey is exceptionally pro EV but none of the above would do the regular 200 mile round trip to her parents, and she has no interest in using the public charging networks, so basically any round trip over c150-160 miles we would revert to the ICE car, not a huge issue.

Then Cupra announced the 77kwh V3 and that was that, we placed an order for it back in may and it arrived about 3 weeks ago, and we are already 1000 miles in.

Pros

Its actually a really nice steer and hunkers down well, although not really been pushed as its been mainly sub 7 degrees the last few weeks !
Interior is a nice place to be, the V3 gets the electric bucket seats, loads of adjustability and very comfy, I have a slipped disc so seats were important.
Range so far, we have seen 265 miles out of a single charge, no great surprise with the weather and the journey profiles, usually 75% motorway at c75mph on Cruise Control
Heated steering wheel is nice.
The Beats Sound System is very good, not quite as good as the BOSE in the other car but well worth it, without there are no rear speakers.
Android Auto and Car Play both work well, we have different phones but no complaints thus far.
Fit and finish seem very good, no better or worse than any of the premium brand offerings we have had in the past.
All the main controls are nicely weighted, steering, brakes, stalks etc, I've had no issue with low speed braking management, we drive everywhere in B mode
I have set the customisable driving profile to give me the sportier steering and suspension settings but with power delivery set to Range, works well, when i need more I just tap the Cupra button on the wheel and it gives me all the power, then when done being a tt, tap it again and go back to my custom settings, so no real difference to the Comfort / Sport / Sport Plus in the ICE car

Cons

The interface, like many EVs can be a tad frustrating but plenty of shortcuts once you get familiar.
The App is average at best, but does the essentials so thats ok.

So all in all, really enjoying it, we wanted a range over 300 but not a big car, my wife doesn't like the Model 3 / Y and VAG group pushing the 77kwh battery pack into the Cupra first made it a no brainer, handles soooo much better than the ID3 did.

Any questions let me know.

[BertBert]

Super, thanks for the info, very helpful! We were booked to go and test drive one this morning, but had to cancel as the entire family has had the flu.

Might try for Saturday if me and Mrs Bert can stop coughing for long enough!

[BertBert]

Quick update here. We went to test drive the Born and liked it a lot. However now that we have to decide, it just seems a lot of money for what we need. So we are having a think about it. Delivery times are about 40 weeks. If I can confirm that we can put a deposit down now and secure a place in the queue, but not have to make the final commitment until build time, I may well do that. Also it feels to me that the market is changing (not unexpectedly). We were in the local VW dealer just to check out what they had. They had a new ID5 that they had had to pre-register (remember those days in the olden times?) and were selling 8k off list! We liked the range, but it's a big car! Far too big for Mrs R. So a good time to wait and see what transpires.

Anyway, we have bought a used polo for the longer journeys that Mrs Bert needs to do and will sell the Zoe if we can get any money for it. WBAC said £1400!!!

So we'll have a break from EVs and see how we get on.

Cheers
Bert

[mabosh]

Interesting. I popped into our local Cupra dealer, in Edinburgh, on Friday to have a look round the Born in the showroom.

Got chatting to the sales guy who says they have access to cars for more or less immediate delivery, 60+ available in V1, V2 and V3 spec. I think he said they all had the Technology pack fitted but other than that were standard.

I was impressed with it too but a nice V2 is going to be about £40k. Struggling to justify it really as there is absolutely nothing wrong with our 2019 Leon but still tempted.

The Skoda dealer next door, same company, has Enyaqs available in the showroom with small discounts. Nearby VW dealer also has ID4s available. Supply looks to be getting better but still variable.

[BertBert]

As we are looking for the V2 long range, there don't appear to be any pre-ordered ones.

Who was the dealer, I'll give them a call. Cheers

[somouk]

You can usually put a deposit down and then get it back so long as the build hasn't been started. As soon as they allocate a VIN that's usually the time you have to have it and can't get a refund.

[BertBert]

somouk said:

You can usually put a deposit down and then get it back so long as the build hasn't been started. As soon as they allocate a VIN that's usually the time you have to have it and can't get a refund.

Thanks, that's what the sales guy said, so I'll do that.

[mabosh]

BertBert said:

As we are looking for the V2 long range, there don't appear to be any pre-ordered ones.

Who was the dealer, I'll give them a call. Cheers

It was Arnold Clark Cupra, Seafield Road, Edinburgh. Didn't get the salesman's name unfortunately.

The cars are off site/at the docks apparently. Let us know how you get on.

[dibblecorse]

mabosh said:

BertBert said:

As we are looking for the V2 long range, there don't appear to be any pre-ordered ones.

Who was the dealer, I'll give them a call. Cheers

It was Arnold Clark Cupra, Seafield Road, Edinburgh. Didn't get the salesman's name unfortunately.

The cars are off site/at the docks apparently. Let us know how you get on.

Suspect they will all be 58kwh cars, the 77kwh cars are trickling through at the moment they definitely aren't sitting about anywhere and Cupra have been given priority on that battery pack by VAG to help bolster the brand.