Cupra Tavascan 2026 review: Endurance long-term | Part 2

In our second month with the Cupra Tavascan Endurance, it’s been our commuter companion on the daily grind.

Sure, this Cupra really put ‘Endurance’ to the test in our last chapter, with an impressive showing of its 500km+ range on a weekend road test, but how well will this more aggressively styled EV handle the duties of daily life?

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How practical is the Cupra Tavascan

This car is maybe case in point for the fact not all mid-size SUVs are built the same. It even goes one better, because while it might ride on the same platform as the Volkswagen ID.4, it’s night and day when it comes to cabin practicality.

This is because certain strong decisions have been made when it comes to setting the Tavascan apart from its platform-mates.

The Spanish brand says this is deliberate. It’s not going to be for everyone, as it’s targeted at a very individualistic buyer. Nothing says this more than some of the plain bizarre choices made when it comes to its interior design.

There’s good and bad. The seats look cool, they’re comfortable, and made out of a kind of neoprene material. I love this material because it’s not your standard cloth or leather, but it’s also not a suede or microfleece which is going to be a nightmare to clean. Some of it is even made of recycled PET bottles, which to me at least is a win.

The amount of adjustability on offer is good, too, with a nice tall roofline, plenty of range of motion for the seats and wheel, and visibility isn’t too bad despite a coupe-style roofline.

Where you start to really run into issues is cabin storage.

For a start, there are two cupholders in the centre console, but they’re so small and overlapping you can only really fit one bottle at a time in there. Annoying.

Then there’s the ‘spine’ thing which protrudes from the console and appears to be holding up the dash piece. It looks super alien and unusual. Folks I’ve had riding along in this car love it, as it really helps set the Tavascan apart from every other minimalist mid-size SUV in the market.

But it really eats into the cabin space. As a result of this design, there’s no easy-access storage tray, with just a tiny space good for maybe your keys above the wireless charger. The wireless charger is also a missed opportunity. It takes up so much room, and is centred in the area below the ‘spine’ when it could be off to one side allowing for additional storage.

To make matters worse, there’s even a pass-through underneath allowed by this car’s EV-only MEB platform, but it’s just carpeted over and offers no additional storage. It would be as simple as adding some plastic sidings to stop objects from leaving this floor space. A wasted opportunity.

In comparison, the ID.4 has a flexible centre console area with removable cupholder modules and plenty of space making the most of the lack of a transmission tunnel or hardware blocking this central area.

But wait, there’s more practicality foibles. The Tavascan gets a split opening centre console box. Again this looks cool, but functionally is annoying because it’s a bit of a weak point which you’ll frequently lean on with your elbow getting in and out of the car, at which point it makes a disconcerting creaking sound. I’m not sure whether this is more a comment on build quality, or that there are just too many moving parts in an object you’re likely to put half your body weight on often. Regardless, it seems like a bit of a blunder.

At least the storage area inside is massive, you’ll need it because there aren’t too many other storage areas up front.

It’s not all bad news. The back seat is massive with plenty of room for me at 182cm tall behind my own driving position, and the boot is more than enough, too. It measures 540 litres and proved sufficient on our trip in the first month.

The design is undeniably cool

Cupra is all about standing out and it’s hard to deny the Tavascan has some presence on the road. This car forgoes the usual amorphous blob shape of many of its mid-size electric rivals and shoots for something which looks insectoid and primal, maybe descended from a scorpion. The more I look at it, the more I like it.

I’d go so far to say the interior has the same impression. Even though it’s not very practical, you can’t accuse it of being too close to its rivals.

It’s an interesting dichotomy for this car, because even amongst other Volkswagen Group cars, it feels very touchscreen-focused, with the driver-oriented and massive screen dominating the interior space.

This is because the Tavascan plays a dual role for Cupra. Not only is this model important as the brand’s first electric SUV, but it’s also built in China with the Chinese market in mind. This means big touchscreens and lots of cool stuff.

At the same time, the European-focus of the Cupra brand is being a more driver-focused alternative to Volkswagen and Skoda, which is a price rung (or two) below Porsche.

It’s a tough tightrope to walk, and explains many of the design choices in this car. The exterior is both unusual and functional, the interior is minimalistic but design-led.

If you want to wow your passengers though, take them for a ride at night. This car feels like it was meant to be experienced after the sun goes down because the interior comes alive with the ambient lighting features.

Suddenly, the very three-dimensional design of the dash becomes ever more apparent, as do the abundance of textures and in-set patterns. It might cater to the Chinese market, but damn, I’d be lying if it didn’t look fully sick.

It’s a surprisingly good daily companion

For all its aggro styling and interesting design choices, the Tavascan is remarkably quiet and comfortable in the daily traffic grind. Any EV should be, I suppose, but there aren’t many pain points with this car either.

This is because it’s largely free of invasive driver aids which can make some other cars in this category a bit of a nightmare to live with. In one sense, the brand paid dearly for this, scoring just four ANCAP stars despite stellar occupant protection scores for not being equipped with speed sign recognition and intelligent speed limiter.

I would argue, however, this Tavascan is safer than many five-star rivals, because I don’t have to go through the rigmarole of disabling overbearing safety functions on the go if I forget to do them before I set off.

What’s actually safer? You decide. ANCAP argues it doesn’t require the systems to be annoying and there are examples of manufacturers who score five stars without their systems being so infuriating you disable them.

Elsewhere in when it comes to being a daily driver, the Tavascan largely rides pretty comfortably despite having a sportier tune than its Volkswagen ID.4 twin, and at commuter speeds (that is, under 80km/h) it is much quieter than what I experienced at 100+km/h on the open road in this car in the first month.

As usual, Cupra’s bespoke steering tune and the lovely steering wheel are a highlight.

What’s missing from the Cupra Tavascan

Something a bit annoying, actually. This car isn’t equipped with V2L unlike various other mid-size electric cars I’ve tested, nor does it have a household-sized power outlet in the cabin.

It’s upsetting for several reasons. Firstly, what a waste of a massive battery. You won’t be able to use it to support powering your home as vehicle-to-grid gets rolled out. Secondly it’s an impediment to working while you’re charging, something which I found myself doing on the road often because the Kia EV6, for example, offered this feature.

There’s also no single-pedal driving, you can get close by setting the shifter to B mode and then turning on the energy saving drive mode. This makes the regenerative braking pretty aggressive, but you’ll still need to hop on the brake to actually stop the car.

I get the sense Volkswagen Group electric cars deliberately don’t offer a one-pedal drive mode to make them more approachable to someone hopping out of a combustion Tiguan or something, but would it really hurt to offer it as a setting in the menu somewhere like some rivals do?

How energy efficient has the Cupra Tavascan been this month?

Pretty damn good. As I’ve been exclusively commuting in it, I’ve managed to shave 0.2kWh/100km off the total, with the computer dropping to 16.2kWh/100km. I wonder if it will drop further or hover at this amount? It seems quite stable for now.

I’ve charged up twice this month. Once at a council slow-charger, which gave me about half a charge and cost $11, and another on my local DC fast charger, the costs of which have crept up a bit. A “full tank” if you will, taking the Tavascan from 10 - 100 per cent (not the 20 - 80 per cent quoted by manufacturers) cost a whopping $47, although this charge will see me well into next month, as the computer is reporting around 577km of range from full (I suspect this is more like 530km, but I’ll run it back down and see how far I get before it needs another charge for next chapter).

In total, now having travelled close to 1600km, our running cost is $85.30. Maybe not as cheap as some would be hoping, but I am relying entirely on expensive public charging because I live in a unit with outdated infrastructure.

Tune in next month for our final update, where we’ll deliver a verdict on our Tavascan. Who do I think will suit this car, and where would I rank it in an increasingly crowded mid-size SUV space? You’ll have to wait until then to find out.

Acquired: May 2025

Distance travelled this month: 602km

Odometer: 2527km

Average energy consumption this month: 16.2kWh/100km

Amount spent charging (total so far): $85.30