It’s not a Volkswagen, but actually a Seat.
Cupra, the performance arm of the Spanish brand Seat, famous for having sold cars in SA for a particularly short time, has revealed the first hot hatch based on its EV architecture. The Cupra el-Born, which after a quick Google appears to be a historical place in Spain famous for jousting, is built on the MEB platform, the same platform used by the VW ID 3 that was revealed last year.
Cupra has been making some fantastically styled cars of late ( just look at the Formentor in this article ) and the el-Born appears to be another jaw-dropping design. If electric cars are going to look like this in the future, sign us up!
Performance figures aren’t available yet, but the el-Born is powered by 77 kWh battery, similar to the top-spec ID 3 Pro S ( the one with 550 km of theoretical range ) which produces 150 kW and 310 Nm from its electric motor. Obviously, the battery would be tuned to deliver more power for the el-Born hot hatch at the expense of some range. For it to be deemed a hot hatch, we would expect a 0-100 kph time of around the 7.0-second mark or under. Remember electric cars are a lot heavier than combustion engines so struggle to push through the midrange like a petrol engine does.
The Cupra el-Born will also offer convenience features such as an Augmented Reality Head-Up Display and full connectivity. The interior comes with sports bucket seats, the new Cupra steering wheel with mode buttons and sustainably-sourced material choices throughout.
This does ask the question as to what VW will do with the ID 3? There are reports of an ID 3 R on the cards, but will there also be a GTI or will that nameplate be reserved for petrol-powered cars?
Uncluttered interior with what looks like suede seats, although certainly something more sustainable.
