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Cupra Tavascan VZ - EV Hour
We get behind the wheel of this fully electric SUV coupe, which features a complete all-wheel-drive system making it perfect for rural terrains.
Audio transcription
"Welcome everyone to another edition of Gamereactor EVHour, this time coming from a windy field in the rain.
We're taking a look at the Cupra Tavascan today, the Vsad model.
While you may look at it and see something that is gaudy, I'm going to agree with you, but I'm also going to say that even though some of the design decisions, particularly inside the cabin, isn't really my thing, this has personality and style and identity, something that I think a lot of EVs will lack."
"So, it's going to be very interesting to see whether or not I can thoroughly recommend this to you at the end of this video.
So let's go for a drive.
There's more good news.
Up to 517 kilometers on a charge from a 77 kilowatt battery and the ability to charge at 135 kilowatts."
"Up to 340 horsepower, 5.6 seconds to 100, and in this particular version, four-wheel drive.
You also get a 540 liter boot and a pretty sleek profile overall.
So it's Model Y comforts at a Model 3 price range.
Now, I've already said a bunch of positive things about the Tavascan, and I mean all of those things."
"But it really is competitively priced, and it really is fun to drive, and it really is filled with strong specifications that the average driver, the average consumer, will appreciate.
So, what is the catch, you say?
Well, there isn't really one, but I will say that unlike a lot of other more anonymous cars on the market, you really do have to like the general aesthetic that the Cupra brand is centered around in order to find yourself, well, basically just enjoying the ride in general, which leads me to this interior that I'm sitting in right now."
"I'm going to go through it real quick.
Look at this.
This is, well, it's very drastic, isn't it?
Ugly depends obviously on the eye of the beholder, and I'm sure Cupra wouldn't really be that appreciative with me just objectively calling it bad design, so I won't."
"What I will say is that this does not gel with who I am, and what I consider to be pretty or a relaxing place to sit.
To me, it is a little bit like those gaming monitors and keyboards that we saw rise to prominence in the early 2010s, where a regular gaming keyboard from, say, MSI, had like a flaming dragon on it, or a gaming monitor had a skull with a sword piercing through it."
"It's not derogatory, and it's certainly not sort of talking down to its consumer, but certainly it's a brand that has a very specific idea of what a consumer like that would want.
Well, same here.
All of this is flared."
"All of this is meant to invoke a sort of a carbon fiber Transformers-like aesthetic, and I will say two things.
I don't personally like this stuff, but it is very well done.
There's nothing here that sticks out as being really badly implemented or using the wrong materials."
"It is very nice overall if you're into this stuff.
I'm just not, so let's separate the personal and sort of more objective stuff from each other.
Then you come to this, the 15-inch main screen.
It's actually quite lovely."
"I don't personally like these sort of semi-touch-based sliders here.
They don't have the tactility of buttons, and they don't have the sort of lovely immediacy of regular touch controls, but they do work, and they work just fine, particularly if you're kind of an in-betweener in terms of digital and analog inputs."
"But the screen is very, very big, and it looks very nice, and this is wireless Apple CarPlay, and all of the apps that I have here are very responsive and nicely ordered in such a way so it's very easy to find what it is that you're looking for rather quickly."
"I also have a little command display right here.
Now, this is a little bit too small for me, but it is slightly helped by a rather massive head-up display, which you cannot really see here, but it's really, really cool."
"Now, there are loads of buttons here on my steering wheel, which are also pseudo-touch-based, which I'm not sure if I like or not, and there are more over here next to this lovely material here there is on the doors.
Really cool."
"So, it's a bit of a mixed bag, so I won't really say that I thoroughly hate what the Cooper Taviscan is putting down in terms of the cabin, because I won't.
What I will say is that it's very noisy in here, and, well, if you like that sort of thing, and, well, it would seem that there really is, well, then this is really cool, and this works just as intended."
"So, take that into account.
Now, this car is built on the MEB platform, like, I think, the VW ID.5 GTX and the Skoda Enyaq, but unlike those two cars, this wasn't made to just carry you from A to B."
"It was made to put a massive smile on your face while you're on that commute.
And here, this Taviscan, to me at the very least, really does get it.
It really does accomplish that main objective.
This is just fun to drive."
"Throttle response, steering immediacy, the overall sort of feel of the cabin when you're driving.
It's entertaining, and it's fun.
And not all cars, particularly EVs, are fun to drive.
A lot of them are good to drive, but fun isn't necessarily a word that is deeply embedded within the sort of constitutional knowledge base of modern EV design."
"It's just not like that.
So, to have one which seems to have fun at the forefront of its mind whenever you turn the ignition, that's really different and cool and fresh."
"And probably the aspect of the Taviscan, and perhaps even sort of Cupra design theory, that I enjoyed the most during my testing.
So there's that as well."
"In the middle of all the BMWs and Audis and Mercedes of the world, it can be a brilliant palate cleanser to drive something like the Taviscan, an EV that's hellbent on a utilitarian design language while offering luxuries at lower prices."
"But that is not why you should buy it.
Why you should buy it, potentially, if this speaks to you, is the same reason I always come back to, which is that this car does have a personality."
"It's a loud one, but it does have one.
To take us home, let me just reiterate that while I don't necessarily like the interior, I have found cars in this particular price bracket that drives worse, that looks worse, and that has way less personality than this."
"So what does that actually mean?
Well, it means that I will be recommending the Cupra Taviscan to you today.
And I can definitely visualize the customer that would be walking happily and satisfied out of a dealership with one of these."
"There are some things that I think it could do better.
The range estimates have been a little off for me, particularly when driving faster on a highway, even though that is something that happens quite commonly to EVs."
"But apart from that, again, I can see that person that can be very satisfied with a Taviscan, even if that person isn't me.
See you on the next one."
EV Hour
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