Cupra Tavascan VZ2 - long-term review

If you think EVs are inefficient in cold weather, I have news. This one's inefficient in warmer weather too.

When it first arrived, temps were nearly always below 5 degrees C. An average 2.8m/kWh was poor. It was worse on motorways, at about 2.5m/kWh, which is 190 miles from the 77kWh battery. That's less range than when I had a 60kWh Renault Megane in similar weather.

Now we're up into spring temperatures, things have barely improved. It's about 2.9m/kWh on the motorway, for 225 miles, and 3.2 bimbling around the busy single-carriageways of the home counties. I blame the pointlessly grippy tyres, directional 255/40 21 Conti SportContact 7, as much as the second motor.

I've recently been spending a lot of time on roads I know in Cornwall. When the road's clear I get about 2.7, but following tourist cars it improves to 3.1.

The guessometer is hopeless. Whatever the state of charge, it tells me I have about one and a half times more range than I actually have. I think it just goes by WLTP mileage, not actual driving or temperature. Still, recharging is quick, not because peak rate is that high (I've seen the specified 135kW) but that it holds a good figure well beyond 70 per cent, so 10-80 is less than 30 minutes. Useful when I drove from Cornwall to the other side of Gloucester for the UK test of the VW Tayron, and straight back the same day.

Driving on narrow twisty west country roads it's a mixed picture. Acceleration is progressive. The brakes, unpredictable in traffic jams, come into their own at proper road speeds. The steering might not have any feel but its response and weight buildup on lock are perfect, so it's a very easy car to place accurately as you sweep through bends of ever-changing radius in a part of this country that has functionally no straights.

These are roads where the white lines are sporadic, so you absolutely have to quench the lane-assist system. Otherwise it'll either shove you into the hedge or, if the lines disappear as the road narrows, nudge you towards an oncoming tractor. There's a screen shortcut: swipe-down, jab. You can set an adjacent shortcut to stop the haphazard speed-limit bonger, but your shortcut often disappears from the screen when you stop and re-start the car. I don't mean the bonger re-sets, because it must do that by law. I mean the shortcut disappears. OTA update please Cupra.

A re-calibration of the rear collision prevention would be good too. It's stupidly trigger-happy. If you meet someone on a narrow lane and reverse towards a passing place, it'll often interpret a fern or bramble growing out of the hedge as an obstacle. So it jams the brakes on. I mean jams. It feels like you've reversed into a rock, and terrifies your passengers. Then you've got to drive forward to convince the car you're not asleep at the wheel, but by that time the driver of the car you've met is approaching you, and is wondering why you're heading towards them again. Duh.

Oh and the indicators don't self-cancel. But I rather like that, having learned to drive in old Citroens. The ones on the Tesla I ran previously drove me bananas by having a mind of their own, cancelling when I didn't expect. So I'd then 'cancel' myself, which of course switched them the other way, and I'd go up the road flashing with oscillating idiocy. In the Cupra it's on for on and off for off. What could be simpler?