CUPRA BORN

Martorell imbues its EV hatchback with extra power and dynamic poise

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The Volkswagen Group's sporty brand, Cupra, has recently had something of a reorganisation of its model derivative nomenclature, and VZ now stands for 'veloz' ('fast' in the marque's native Spanish tongue).Confused? If you have thus far assumed that all Cupras were supposed to be fast, you might be.

This marque was launched as a performance sub-brand, of course, but has spread its wings since first appearing in 2018, producing pseudo-premium mainstream cars with a sporting edge. VZ is its new special model suffix with which to identify those cars with an extra hit of dynamic excitement, then.

The first is the Born VZ. Designed to sit above the rest of the Born showroom line-up, this car benefits from the improvements that the VW Group has been making to its toolkit of EV powertrain technology, drafting in the electric motor developed for the larger VW ID 7 last year, as well as other associated powertrain tech.

It also gets updates to the suspension, steering and braking systems of the kind you might expect of a more traditional hot hatch, as well as lighter front sports seats, and some wider interior revisions due to be rolled out across the Born range as part of a model-year update later this year.

DESIGN & ENGINEERING

PROS ‘Rightness’ of single-motor, rear-drive concept; boosts to both range and performance

CONS Could have used bolder performance styling; may not hit hard enough to lure Tesla crowd