Whenever I've got myself a new car I usually rush with excitement to get a post up here, but this time was different. You see, I'm an absolute petrolhead and the idea of an EV really didn't appeal to me. I said previously on this forum that I often though I wasn't so much a car guy, but an internal combustion guy and cars are just the way I get to interact with engines on a daily basis.
A few weeks ago our new company car list metaphorically passed across my desk. I've never paid it much attention, quite happy doing my own thing and getting paid a little extra for doing so. However, this time I couldn't help but notice the benefit-in-kind tax rates on the EV's. I sat down and started doing some basic maths and worked out if I sold my Duster and paid off some debts and replaced the Duster with a company car, I'd be around £200-£300 a month better off, and that wasn't taking into account running costs either. I mulled it over for a little bit and mentioned it to my Wife who took the time to work the sums out herself and came to the same conclusion.
The next day I put an order in for a brand new Renault Megane Iconic ETech in mightnight blue with a black roof, black half leather with grey cloth seats. I was told the wait would be approximately 10 weeks and was offered this car in the interim. Without wanting to give too much away just yet, I've decided to cancel that order for the time being, and keep this car until it's lease is up in October 2026.
This Cupra Born V2 arrived two weeks ago today. It's basically a VW ID3 with some angrier looking bumpers and trims, some bigger angrier alloy wheels, lower firmer angrier suspension, some angrier bucket-esque type front seats seats, and a better infotainment system. The car has a 201hp motor that powers the rear wheels (yay!) and a 58kWh battery slung under the floor.
My biggest concern and the elephant in the room when it comes to EV's was obviously range. I'm getting ~230miles out of a full charge. A full charge takes around 9 hours on my 7kw domestic charger at home or can be charged from 10% to 80% in 30 minutes on a rapid charger which I'm yet to try. I generally only commute two days a week, one of those days I have a 110 mile round trip and the second I have a 190 mile round trip. Both quite easily doable in the Born. I get a cheap charge tariff between 00:30 and 05:30 of 8p/kWh which I take full advantage of by scheduling the charges only during this time and averaging around 2.7p/mile in electricity costs. Of course, if I used the rapid chargers (which are currently upwards of 75p/kWh) I could easily increase this cost by a factor of 10. As a comparison, my old Dacia Duster with it's little 1.5 diesel engine had fuel costs around ~13p/mile, so significant savings are available if you can manage your charging costs accordingly.
For a 200bhp hatch weighing nearly 1800kgs the performance is surprising. Officially the 0-60 time is 6.9s with a limited top speed of 99mph. I've driven a plethora of vehicles in my 15 year driving career with all sorts of different engines and gearboxes and NOTHING compares to the response and instant torque production of the electric motor. In fact, I find myself performing overtakes or pulling out of junctions where I wouldn't dare in an ICE car because I know the second I hit that throttle it's just going to respond instantly. There's no gear change wait for or turbo lag to consider, foot down and off you go. It's actually quite addictive.
There's no getting away from the fact this car is heavy. The suspension is stiff and the weight really does show it's face when the road is anything but perfectly smooth. Maybe I've just been too used to the floaty cushy nature of the Duster for too long, you could drive at speed bumps with that thing at speeds you shouldn't and it would barely flinch. I will say though, the low centre of gravity of the Born does appear to be advantageous when the road gets curvy, certainly turn in is sharp and well controlled but the narrow 215 section tyres make putting down any power as you come out of a corner an issue. Often the rear wheels will hop and skip while the traction control tries to keep it all under wraps. It does all add to a car though that feels far more powerful than it otherwise is, And that's a good thing, right?
Overall build quality is very good. Everything has that usual VW 'heaviness' to it. Nothing squeaks or rattles but I wouldn't expect much else in a car with only 20k on the clock. And why do VW cars always smell like crayons?
I do have a few issues with the car. My first complaint is the touch buttons. They are EVERYWHERE! The worst are the buttons on the steering wheel which I am CONSTANTLY pressing by accident. And what kind of mindless idiot decided this 'REAR' button was a good idea...
The infotainment system is a little convoluted to use, a bit slow and things aren't where you'd expect them. The sound system is also a bit disappointing too, my bargain basement Duster would run rings around it! Often you notice a lot of the bass being 'pulled' (I'm sure there's an official term for this) when trying to crank up my 2000's era punk rock playlists while trying to relive my teenage years.
I also feel like I'm sitting too high in what should be a 'warm-ish' hatch. I guess this is down to the batteries but it does sometimes make the car feel a little tall, almost like an MPV.
The car does have a head up display, and this isn't a complaint at the car but head up displays in general. What's the point? It actually started annoying me and feeling like it was in the way when I was looking out of the windscreen. I was glad to see it could be switched off.
Also occasionally the regenerative braking doesn't kick in quite quick enough and you find yourself pressing the brake pedal too far and utilising the physical brakes before the regenerative braking kicks in and throws you through the windscreen. Had a few awkward conversations with passengers when that's happened. Luckily, it isn't too often and I'm more mindful of it now.
Last week I had a minor internal crisis when I realised I was enjoying driving this thing. I put my foot down at a traffic light and there was a 'whoop' and a whine from the motor at the back of the car as I got shot off into the horizon and I realised I had a smile on my face. I genuinely worried for a minute that ICE cars would suddenly feel agricultural and over complicated. Would I still enjoy them as much? I used my Wife's Volvo to move some timber for a friend of mine this weekend just gone. We were pulling up a steep hill with the rear of the car half full of wood listening to the engine growl away with the delightful 5 pot thrum it makes and as we neared the summit of the hill I lifted off the throttle, as I did so the engine fell silent and a loud 'whoooshhh' from the turbo ricochet the old stone wall next to us. I smiled, giggled and realised nothing had really changed and my love for ICE still stands.
My neighbour stuck his head out of the front door yesterday while I was emptying my work gear out the boot and said "You love it yet?" and I shrugged my shoulders and just responded "I don't think I could really love it, but I'm pleasantly surprised".
A few weeks ago our new company car list metaphorically passed across my desk. I've never paid it much attention, quite happy doing my own thing and getting paid a little extra for doing so. However, this time I couldn't help but notice the benefit-in-kind tax rates on the EV's. I sat down and started doing some basic maths and worked out if I sold my Duster and paid off some debts and replaced the Duster with a company car, I'd be around £200-£300 a month better off, and that wasn't taking into account running costs either. I mulled it over for a little bit and mentioned it to my Wife who took the time to work the sums out herself and came to the same conclusion.
The next day I put an order in for a brand new Renault Megane Iconic ETech in mightnight blue with a black roof, black half leather with grey cloth seats. I was told the wait would be approximately 10 weeks and was offered this car in the interim. Without wanting to give too much away just yet, I've decided to cancel that order for the time being, and keep this car until it's lease is up in October 2026.
This Cupra Born V2 arrived two weeks ago today. It's basically a VW ID3 with some angrier looking bumpers and trims, some bigger angrier alloy wheels, lower firmer angrier suspension, some angrier bucket-esque type front seats seats, and a better infotainment system. The car has a 201hp motor that powers the rear wheels (yay!) and a 58kWh battery slung under the floor.
My biggest concern and the elephant in the room when it comes to EV's was obviously range. I'm getting ~230miles out of a full charge. A full charge takes around 9 hours on my 7kw domestic charger at home or can be charged from 10% to 80% in 30 minutes on a rapid charger which I'm yet to try. I generally only commute two days a week, one of those days I have a 110 mile round trip and the second I have a 190 mile round trip. Both quite easily doable in the Born. I get a cheap charge tariff between 00:30 and 05:30 of 8p/kWh which I take full advantage of by scheduling the charges only during this time and averaging around 2.7p/mile in electricity costs. Of course, if I used the rapid chargers (which are currently upwards of 75p/kWh) I could easily increase this cost by a factor of 10. As a comparison, my old Dacia Duster with it's little 1.5 diesel engine had fuel costs around ~13p/mile, so significant savings are available if you can manage your charging costs accordingly.
For a 200bhp hatch weighing nearly 1800kgs the performance is surprising. Officially the 0-60 time is 6.9s with a limited top speed of 99mph. I've driven a plethora of vehicles in my 15 year driving career with all sorts of different engines and gearboxes and NOTHING compares to the response and instant torque production of the electric motor. In fact, I find myself performing overtakes or pulling out of junctions where I wouldn't dare in an ICE car because I know the second I hit that throttle it's just going to respond instantly. There's no gear change wait for or turbo lag to consider, foot down and off you go. It's actually quite addictive.
There's no getting away from the fact this car is heavy. The suspension is stiff and the weight really does show it's face when the road is anything but perfectly smooth. Maybe I've just been too used to the floaty cushy nature of the Duster for too long, you could drive at speed bumps with that thing at speeds you shouldn't and it would barely flinch. I will say though, the low centre of gravity of the Born does appear to be advantageous when the road gets curvy, certainly turn in is sharp and well controlled but the narrow 215 section tyres make putting down any power as you come out of a corner an issue. Often the rear wheels will hop and skip while the traction control tries to keep it all under wraps. It does all add to a car though that feels far more powerful than it otherwise is, And that's a good thing, right?
Overall build quality is very good. Everything has that usual VW 'heaviness' to it. Nothing squeaks or rattles but I wouldn't expect much else in a car with only 20k on the clock. And why do VW cars always smell like crayons?
I do have a few issues with the car. My first complaint is the touch buttons. They are EVERYWHERE! The worst are the buttons on the steering wheel which I am CONSTANTLY pressing by accident. And what kind of mindless idiot decided this 'REAR' button was a good idea...
The infotainment system is a little convoluted to use, a bit slow and things aren't where you'd expect them. The sound system is also a bit disappointing too, my bargain basement Duster would run rings around it! Often you notice a lot of the bass being 'pulled' (I'm sure there's an official term for this) when trying to crank up my 2000's era punk rock playlists while trying to relive my teenage years.
I also feel like I'm sitting too high in what should be a 'warm-ish' hatch. I guess this is down to the batteries but it does sometimes make the car feel a little tall, almost like an MPV.
The car does have a head up display, and this isn't a complaint at the car but head up displays in general. What's the point? It actually started annoying me and feeling like it was in the way when I was looking out of the windscreen. I was glad to see it could be switched off.
Also occasionally the regenerative braking doesn't kick in quite quick enough and you find yourself pressing the brake pedal too far and utilising the physical brakes before the regenerative braking kicks in and throws you through the windscreen. Had a few awkward conversations with passengers when that's happened. Luckily, it isn't too often and I'm more mindful of it now.
Last week I had a minor internal crisis when I realised I was enjoying driving this thing. I put my foot down at a traffic light and there was a 'whoop' and a whine from the motor at the back of the car as I got shot off into the horizon and I realised I had a smile on my face. I genuinely worried for a minute that ICE cars would suddenly feel agricultural and over complicated. Would I still enjoy them as much? I used my Wife's Volvo to move some timber for a friend of mine this weekend just gone. We were pulling up a steep hill with the rear of the car half full of wood listening to the engine growl away with the delightful 5 pot thrum it makes and as we neared the summit of the hill I lifted off the throttle, as I did so the engine fell silent and a loud 'whoooshhh' from the turbo ricochet the old stone wall next to us. I smiled, giggled and realised nothing had really changed and my love for ICE still stands.
My neighbour stuck his head out of the front door yesterday while I was emptying my work gear out the boot and said "You love it yet?" and I shrugged my shoulders and just responded "I don't think I could really love it, but I'm pleasantly surprised".
