Cupra Born VZ - long-term review

“Blimey, look at the wheels.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that – or variations on the theme – since this Cupra Born VZ first arrived. And they really are an excellent set of wheels. Although I haven’t had to clean them yet. Could be tricky.

Anyway, we’ve already run a standard Born in the TG garage back in 2023, but this is supposedly a whole different kettle of fish. You see, the optional 20in turbofan-esque ‘Tornado’ wheels mark this out as the performance-focussed Born VZ.

We’re told that VZ stands for Veloz (the Spanish word for speed), and that it will be used to mark all of Cupra’s hot iterations from now on. And no, we really don’t know where the presence of colder Cupras leaves Seat, but that’s a question for another day.

The Born VZ was first unveiled to the world in February 2024, and the first thing to note is that it barely looks any different to the standard car. The Born is already a fairly sporty-looking thing with its sharky face up front and hint of a diffuser at the rear, so Cupra clearly decided that the hot one just needed some badges and funky wheels. You do also get some excellent Sabelt bucket seats inside though, plus the Sennheiser premium sound system and DCC adaptive suspension as standard.

Underneath, the Born VZ still only gets a single motor powering its rear axle, but that motor is much more powerful with 322bhp as opposed to the standard car’s 227bhp. There’s 402lb ft of torque too and a claimed 0-62mph time of 5.6 seconds, all numbers that put the Born VZ firmly into the modern hot hatch window. But can a rear-wheel drive EV really be considered a proper hot hatch? Or in fact, will this thing be the saviour of the hot hatch as we transition to our all-electric future? We’ll endeavour to find out over the next six months.

The good news for me (without any access to home charging) is that the VZ also has a new, bigger battery. You see, the entry level Born comes with a 59kWh unit for 264 miles of range. With the posher V3 trim you can up that to a 77kWh battery that’ll allow for 342 miles on a charge, but the VZ gets a 79kWh slab under the floor for a claimed 366 miles between top-ups. Should be handy if it can manage anywhere close to that – I’ve only ever run short-range EVs on a long-term basis like the Fiat 500 and the Ora Funky Cat *shudder*, so I’ll be interested to see whether a bigger battery is worth the cost in both cash and materials.

Having had plenty of previous run-ins with recent Volkswagen Group infotainment systems, I’ll also be interested to see how the updated 12in screen works. Let’s hope it behaves. At £44,625 before options, the Born VZ isn’t exactly a budget performance car. Having added those aforementioned wheels (which cost a very strangely specific £1,142.75) and lovely ‘Dark Forest’ green paint (£930), ours just sneaks under £46,700. The VZ just about manages to sneak under the two-tonne mark on the scales too. Lots to prove…