CUPRA BORN 58 kWh RANGE TEST (highway and city)

I will first test the range at lower average speeds in the city. I wanted to know what the maximum range of this car could be. Let’s take a look at my results. At the beginning of this part of the test, the battery is at 100%. I did the test in February and it was between 7 and 8 degrees. It also rained that day.

The first leg was about 36 km of driving in and around Brussels. I had an average consumption of 17.6 kwh resulting in an estimated range of 330 km. The rest of the ride I drove around in Flanders. Still in an urban area, but with many more opportunities for just smooth driving.

I further drained the battery to 68% over a total ride of 106 km. Over the course of the trip, consumption dropped to 16.3 kWh. So the range in the city is 356 km.

The purpose of this part of the test is to find out the minimum range of this car by testing it at higher average speeds. I took this test right after the city test. So at the beginning of this test, the battery is at 68%. The temperature during this part of the test was 7-8 degrees and it rained more. I drove from Brussels to a region near Namur for a total ride of 104 km. Let’s take a look at my results. Unlike my other range tests, this time I did not go off the highway. So the consumption was pretty steady over the whole drive.

I drained the battery to 24% and the highway range is 272 km based on an average consumption of 21.3 kWh.

Perhaps you are also curious about the range in a more mixed scenario? If I look at the overall picture of the drive, where I first did a city drive of 106 km and then did a highway drive of 104 km where I drained the battery from 100% to 24% in an almost 50/50 city and highway scenario , I had an average consumption of 18.8 kwh giving me a total range of 309 km.

The Cupra Born is equipped with CCS (combined charging system). With this system, the Born can be charged with either AC or DC. For this test, I am charging the car at a DC Fast Charger. The Cupra Born 58 kWh can fast charge at up to 100 kW. Cupra says it takes 35 minutes to charge at 100 kW. It does not say whether it is from 0 to 100% or something else, such as from 20 to 80%.

At the beginning of the test, the battery is only at 8% and the range indicator shows a range of 29 km. Outside, it is 6.5 degrees.

The car indicated that it would take about 1h05 min to fully charge the battery. I will do a 30-minute recharge test.

At first, the car charged at a speed of about 62 kw. After 6 minutes, it was 76 kw.

After 10 minutes, we were charging at a speed of about 84 kW.

The battery increased to 26% and we gained about 63 km on the range indicator.

After 20 minutes, I noticed that we were charging at a speed of 69 kw. I gained another 64 km of range and the battery is now at 50%.

After 30 minutes, the battery is at 68%. The charging speed dropped to 50 kw. The range is at 205 km, so we gained 176 km.

One thing I want to add is that while driving to the fast charger, I did put a charging destination in the GPS. I don’t know if it helps to prepare the battery for charging, but I did it anyway. It was only a 15-minute ride before I started charging, though, so maybe the battery was too cold after all. It could be a possible explanation for not reaching the maximum charging rate of 100 kw

I haven’t done an AC charging test with this car, but let’s look at some theoretical information. The charging speed of the on-board charger is 11 kw. The AC charging time is 6 hours and 15 minutes.

In conclusion, I can say that the range of the Cupra Born 58 kWh is between 272 km and 356 km, based on similar driving conditions and measured in somewhat colder temperatures between 6 and 8 degrees and also with a fair amount of rain tjj during my test on the highway. I suspect that in much colder temperatures you will probably get less range, but in warmer temperatures you will get more range. I would say around the WLTP range of 424 km.

Here you can watch my POV test drive video. I also did a test drive with the CUPRA BORN 231 HP 77 kWh.