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By Jonathan Crouch

In fast VZ form, the CUPRA Born sharpens up its act. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 22

The CUPRA Born was already our favourite small EV. In this VZ hot hatch form, it's even more rewarding. Pricey but desirable.

Backgroundword count: 163

If ever a compact electric hatch was right for shopping rocket treatment, it's the CUPRA Born. Generally recognised as the most driver-orientated family five-door EV out there, the Born has been a success story for its German-funded Spanish maker, with European sales up 44% in 2023. This VZ model is now the ultimate version you could choose, its name standing for the 'veloz' or 'speed' - and there's certainly plenty of that on offer here. The market for EV hot hatches is just starting to take shape, with the dinky Abarth 500e at one end and the Hyundai IONIQ 5N at the other. Think of the CUPRA Born VZ as being pitched somewhere in the middle of those two extremes in terms of price, power and presence and you won't be too far out. Mind you, virtually everything you get here you can also have in the almost identically-engineered Volkswagen ID.3 GTX. So why choose this top Born? Let's take a closer look.

Driving Experienceword count: 240

An awful lot's been done here to distance this Born from its urban runabout roots, courtesy of an engineering team led by ex-World Touring Car ace Jordi Gene. Power's up by 75% from 228PS to 326PS over the existing eBoost model, though surprisingly it's still only coming from a single rear-mounted motor. That's why the 5.6s 0-62mph time is way off the 3.8s figure of this car's most obvious rival, the much cheaper MG4 XPOWER (which uses a dual motor AWD set-up). But involving speed is about more than just sheer power and the Born VZ compensates in other ways. To cope with the impressive 545Nm torque figure, the steering and braking have both been substantially overhauled. Plus there are tuning changes at the front, new anti-roll bars, new springs for the rear suspension and standard adaptive DCC dampers. Top speed is up by 25mph to 124mph and the battery size has gone up 2kWh to 79kWh, which keeps range at a reasonable 372 miles. A figure you can preserve through judicious use of a new three-stage paddle shift brake regen system. Surprisingly, the one thing that's missing is something many hot hatch customers will be looking for; a performance style powertrain driving sound to replace the lack of this segment's usual combustion rev note. But there's the usual selection of drive modes, including a full fat 'CUPRA' setting on the steering wheel which dials everything into red mist mode.

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