Cupra Born hatchback - Reliability & safety

The Volkswagen Group has invested millions of pounds in its all-new electric architecture and the Cupra Born benefits from this extensive development and testing. Build quality and reliability are an important part of the manufacturing giant’s effort to steer people away from combustion-engined models.

If there are gremlins early on, they're most likely to be software related, as so many of the car's systems are electronic. The ID.3 suffered from lots of tech bugs not long after its launch, but we’re hoping that all of those have been fixed by now.

Cupra Born reliability

There is no specific Driver Power survey data available to tell us whether Cupra customers are happy with their cars; the Born has only been on sale since late 2021, so any information will take a little while to filter through. 

That said, the power of the Volkswagen Group should ensure most of the Born’s parts are tried and tested. SEAT – the brand Cupra grew out of – came 23rd out of 32 manufacturers in our Driver Power survey, with a reasonable 21% of owners reporting a fault within the first year. EV-only brands Polesar and Tesla finished higher overall in second and third respectively, but with far higher proportions of first-year faults of 69% and 40%.

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Safety

Lots of safety equipment is available for the Born, including features like predictive cruise control and even semi-autonomous driving that can assist with steering, accelerating and slowing the car in heavy traffic on the motorway to make long trips more relaxing. The Cupra can also be fitted with a 360-degree camera view to make it easier to park, along with sensors to detect other traffic and help prevent collisions.

With all of this modern safety equipment, it's unsurprising that the Cupra gains the same five-star Euro NCAP safety rating as the Volkswagen ID.3, Polestar 2 and Skoda Enyaq iV. The Cupra Leon and Formentor both have five-star scores too.