Cupra Tavascan long-term test: report 3

The Tavascan is Cupra's first electric SUV, with slightly sportier pretensions than many of its rivals. But will it be satisfying to live with? We're running one to find out...

Published03 July 2025

The car Cupra Tavascan 77kWh V2 Run by Allan Muir, managing editor

Why we’re running it To find out whether Cupra's electric SUV can combine sportiness and practicality in a more convincing way than the Ford and Volkswagen models that share its underpinnings

Needs to Be better to drive than the average electric SUV, as well as being practical and having a long enough real-world range to dismiss any concerns about charging

Mileage 1095 List price £53,845 Target Price £51,557 Price as tested £56,175 Test range 262 miles Official range 339 miles

12 June 2025 – Chain reaction

The chain came off my e-bike the other day, and I was mortified to discover that getting it back in place – a task that should have been simple – proved beyond my capabilities this time. With the bike being unrideable, I had little choice but to load it into the back of my car and take it to a cycle shop for some expert help.

I was confident the bike would fit into the boot of my Cupra Tavascan without any difficulties. After all, I’d previously managed to squeeze the same bike into the back of a Mazda MX-30 R-EV – a significantly smaller car – and the Tavascan’s boot is large and quite tall, despite the sloping rear roofline. With the rear seatbacks folded down, the relatively heavy e-bike slid in with only an average amount of wrestling (once I’d removed the front wheel), and the tailgate closed without hitting anything.

The cycle shop, of course, didn’t have any difficulty getting the chain back in place, despite going about it in much the same way as what I’d attempted earlier. So it wasn’t long before I was repeating the loading and unloading process to get the bike home again.

All told, I’m impressed with the Tavascan’s boot so far. It’s more practical than you might expect from looking at the car, especially when you consider that it has a height-adjustable floor (which, in its lower position, makes the load bay taller still but leaves more of a lip) and a decent-sized underfloor storage bin. The latter is where I keep the charging cables, given that (disappointingly) there’s no extra storage space under the bonnet.

Speaking of looking at the car, I’m dubious about the Tavascan designers’ decision to be so liberal with shiny black plastic on the outside. Like many SUVs, the Tavascan has it around the wheel arches and along the lower sills, but it also has huge swathes of the stuff at the front and rear. A large portion of the car’s nose is solid black plastic – and it’s a magnet for bugs in warmer weather.

I can foresee me having to clean this car more often than usual simply to keep the front of it from looking unsightly. Fortunately, I find washing my own car quite satisfying; if I do it regularly enough, hopefully the splattered bugs won’t be so welded on that I need a hammer and chisel to remove them. More realistically, I might have to invest in some bespoke insect remover spray to make the process easier.

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