Cupra Born VZ Review: Good, Clean Fun

It wasn’t so long ago that a review of a 300bhp-plus rear-wheel drive hot hatch would have meant some snorty straight-six version of the BMW 1 Series. The times they are very quickly a-changing, though, and if you want a hatchback that sends that kind of power to the rear wheels these days, your choice is this: the all-electric Cupra Born VZ.

Well, this or the VW ID3 GTX, which is basically the same car. The Cupra is the more outwardly sporty of the duo, getting standard dynamic chassis control (an option on the ID3) and a steering wheel button with Cupra’s slightly generic logo that puts everything in its spiciest setting.

It’s weird, then, that it doesn’t do much to set itself apart visually from the standard Born. You get chunkier 20-inch alloys on the outside, and two-piece bucket seats on the inside, but besides that, the only real visual clue you’re looking at the hot one is the unassuming VZ badge on the back (that’s the moniker Cupra now uses to denote its hottest models – it’s a contraction of ‘veloz’, Spanish for ‘fast’).

The changes underneath are a bit more substantial: the rear springs and dampers are new, the front shocks have been retuned, the steering weight and brake force have been revised, and there are new anti-roll bars.

Most importantly, though, the VZ’s rear-mounted motor develops a meaty 322bhp and 402lb ft of torque. That’s 96bhp and 173lb ft more than lesser Borns get, and it’s all still sent to the back wheels. 0-62mph takes 5.6 seconds, and top speed is 124mph – a lot for a small-ish EV.

From the moment you take a corner with any sort of commitment, the inherent rear-drive-ness of the Born VZ makes itself known. The back end is mobile, and the front end is direct. Even with the ESC putting a pretty immediate stop to any proper silliness, it corners with the sort of balance and adjustability you expect from something that sends all its power to the back.

The steering’s good, too – not particularly feelsome, but you can tell effort’s been put into making it nicely weighted and direct without artificial heft.

But perhaps what impresses most about the way the VZ goes down a road is the suspension. The adaptive damping can be adjusted, but leave it a slacker setting and the car breathes with the surface, taking imperfections and compressions in its stride. It feels supple but taut, not pointlessly firm but not a roly-poly mess either, and that’s a balance that a lot of cars fail to strike.

322bhp and 402lb ft are ample but not silly numbers for an EV, and they’re delivered with a reassuring smoothness rather than a neck-spraining wallop. This gives you further confidence to take corners with commitment, safe in the knowledge you can finely modulate the accelerator.

It all adds up to something that can be hustled down a road with really impressive composure and grace. Once you’re used to the lack of engine noise (there are no attempts at fakery here, thankfully), and assuming you have the regen dialled back, you can quite easily forget you’re driving anything other than a fast, automatic hot hatch – and one that’s been properly set up at that.

The only dampener on these otherwise impressive dynamics are the brakes. Despite the VZ-specific tweaks, the pedal has far too much squidge in it, and the brakes themselves could offer up a lot more bite. Coming off a faster stretch into a tight corner, they can be a bit of a reality check.

They’re not enough to spoil what’s otherwise a very enjoyable thing to pedal along a nice road, though, and happily, the Born VZ is also rather good at doing normal things. It’s as effortless as you’d expect a small EV to be around town, with bags of forward visibility, a pliant ride and a hushed cabin.

Its 79kWh battery gives a quoted range of 335 miles, although in the cold-ish weather we drove it in, around 270 was more realistic. It withstands a range of driving conditions though, never chewing through range at a truly alarming rate on a motorway cruise or if you suddenly decide your trousers are on fire. You should comfortably best 3.5m/kWh.

The interior is a minimalist affair, for better or worse. The VW Group’s column-mounted gear selector is better than some other attempts, but a proper shifter in the centre console would still be preferable – especially because the light and wiper controls are handled by a single stalk. Hopefully the driver in front of you won't mind too much when you dazzle them with your high beams when you're trying to wash your windscreen.

The Born gets the same basic infotainment setup as the ID3, which thankfully received a round of updates last year, making it much easier to navigate. Really, though, you’ll probably just use it to change the odd setting and mirror your phone the rest of the time. The volume and temperature sliders on the bottom are now illuminated, but still rubbish to use, though you at least get some clicky steering wheel buttons.

The rest of the interior, though, offers much to like. It’s full of materials that feel both pleasant and interesting, it’s bright and airy thanks to the Born’s tall greenhouse, and the VZ-exclusive Sabelt bucket seats are excellent. Combined with the usual serenity that a well-built EV offers, and the pliant ride, the Born’s as pleasant to sit on the motorway in as it is surprisingly fun to hustle down a B-road.

The VZ’s biggest rival, of course, is really a very close relative. However, not only does the Born get some standard goodies that are options on the ID3 GTX, it looks better to our eyes, and at £44,625, it’s actually a couple of grand cheaper than the Volkswagen. Feels like a no-brainer, then, though we’ll reserve judgement until we’ve actually tried the ID3 too.

Other rivals are few and far between at the moment – the Mini Cooper SE and Alpine A290 GTS are smaller and less powerful, and while the MG4 XPower is a similar size, its dual-motor setup offers considerably more grunt. It’s also nowhere near as fun. Perhaps the Abarth 600e will provide some meaningful competition – it’s front-wheel drive, and a bit less powerful at 276bhp, but it’s talking a big game with its limited-slip diff and angry face.

In all honesty, we expected the Born VZ’s attempts at hot hatchery to feel a bit half-baked, but they simply don’t. It doesn’t have the EV-sceptic conversion powers of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, but it is proof that an electric car can be good fun without relying on face-bending torque or power-juggling electronic wizardry. It’s a good, fast hatchback with a nice interior and a very well-judged chassis – one that just happens to be electric.