Cupra Tavascan long-term test: report 5

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 1776 List price £53,845 Best price £47,845 Price as tested £56,175 Test range 265 miles Official range 339 miles

23 July 2025 – Shortcut to nowhere

Swiping down from the top centre of my Cupra Tavascan’s infotainment touchscreen reveals a configurable row of ‘favourite’ shortcuts for frequently used functions. It’s an obvious place to put some of the driver aids that I might want to turn off, such as lane-keeping assistance and the speed warning. Accessing most of these functions is a doddle; a swipe, a tap and another swipe up and I’m back to where I was before. But unlike all the others in that menu, the speed warning icon refuses to stay put for long.

How long it remains in the favourites list seems to vary, but more often than not it makes itself scarce after just one or two journeys. This is frustrating, because the road sign recognition system doesn't always get the prevailing speed limit correct and I tend to seek out the ‘off’ control for the speed warning fairly regularly.

Fortunately, that control can also be found without too much difficulty in the vehicle menu, which can be accessed via one of the permanent shortcuts in the top right corner of the touchscreen. It takes precisely three taps to deactivate the speed limit warning that way. True, that’s fiddlier than pressing the physical button on the dashboard of my old Renault Scenic, but it’s quicker and easier than adding the icon back into the row of favourites. And thankfully, the Tavascan’s touchscreen boots up and responds to inputs swiftly enough that I don’t usually have to wait for long to do it when I start the car. 

Almost as puzzling as the vanishing speed warning shortcut is why my Tavascan’s doors are so fiddly to open from the inside. The doors seem to take a long time to unlock automatically when the car is parked, so the first pull on the handle is usually to unlock them and the second pull releases my door. There’s little consistency, though; occasionally the door opens on the first tug, but sometimes it takes at least three attempts. It’s possible that there’s a setting somewhere to alter this, but I can’t find it.

Getting into the car isn’t a problem, although the external handles feel odd; they have touch-sensitive panels on the undersides that you press with your fingers to release the doors. This smacks of trying to do things differently for the sake of it; I’d rather just have regular pull-out handles.

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