Cupra Born vs Hyundai IONIQ Electric

The Cupra Born costs £5,445 more than the Hyundai IONIQ Electric. For that premium it adds 107 miles more WLTP range, 55 kW faster peak rapid charging and 40 kW more power. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Cupra Born comes out ahead overall.

The Hyundai IONIQ Electric is £5,445 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £128 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Hyundai IONIQ Electric comes out roughly £5,405 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 250 miles for the Cupra Born and 161 miles for the Hyundai IONIQ Electric - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Cupra Born goes roughly 89 miles further between charging stops.

The two are within 11 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 591 mm of total clearance for the Cupra Born and about 580 mm of total clearance for the Hyundai IONIQ Electric. The Cupra Born also turns in a 0.4 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Cupra Born and 84% for the Hyundai IONIQ Electric. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.