Cupra He called us a few days ago to participate in his first edition of the Cupra Born Challenge. It is a pairs test in which we would face several colleagues from other media. The objective is to complete a 116-kilometer route through the northern area of the Community of Madrid in less than two hours and... spending as little as possible. That is to say, an eco-rally.
After a brief briefing by the organizers, as well as a series of tips and technical data to help us with battery consumption, we got to work. review the route meter and to mark the points that, a priori, seemed more complicated to us. Yes, on this route we would not use the car's navigator, but rather a Roadmap to which we had to be attentive at all times.
When we realized it, my partner, Daniel Valdivielso, and I were inside the car, the Cupra Born, waiting for them to give us the exit. Daniel would first be in charge of interpreting and singing the notes, while my task in this first part of the challenge would be to keep a good rhythm while spending as little as possible. Approximately halfway along the route we would find a checkpoint, where we would be forced to stop to change drivers and reverse roles.
But first of all, it is important to talk about the car. Logically, all the teams ran on equal terms, with the same car. The protagonist was Cupra born In its most performance version, the e-Boost Pack of 231 HP with the 77 kWh battery.
It is the company's first electric car, sits on the Volkswagen Group's MEB platform and has a approved consumption of 15,8 kWh/100 km; that transforms into a autonomy of 549 kilometers. Among other data, it reaches a limited maximum speed of 160 km/h and can go from 0 to 100 in 7 seconds. By the way, it is rear-wheel drive.
It is not the first time I have done a test of this type, but it is the first time I have done it with an electric vehicle. Furthermore, on the other occasions the route had been much shorter. Now we were talking about a 2 hour time limit to complete the approximately 115 kilometers. On the other hand, the heat of these first days of October in Madrid would be of little help, but it would affect all participants equally.
It is difficult to make estimates of when you can drive faster and when you should go slower to benefit fuel consumption if you do not know the route. The ideal is to do the ascents calmly and “attack” on the descents., especially in mountain areas. But of course, you must always achieve a balance between speed and consumption.
In any case, the route was very well chosen by the organization. Well, we had flat secondary roads, crossings and urban areas, ascents from ports, descents and a certain stretch of highway in which, by regulation, we had to maintain a minimum speed of 95 km/h to avoid being penalized. Was a very varied route.
Therefore, we could test the car in many different circumstances. The main thing was to be as efficient as possible, of course, but On the descents from the mountain passes we tested the dynamic part of the Cupra Born, since the pace was quite fast since we had to make the most of the inertia and, furthermore, it was the ideal time to increase the average speed.
The best reward was knowing, after two hours of testing and having sweated a lot inside the car -because we did not activate the air conditioning to consume less-, was knowing the results. We knew we had done well, but not enough to win among all the participants..
According to the organization, we consume 15% of the total battery, so the weighting was 12,3 kWh in the 115 kilometers traveled, leaving a average of 10,62 kWh/100 km. I remember that the approved one is 15,8. Obviously, the driving was very efficient at all times, but the average speed was 58 km/h, that is, we could not sleep nor was there an excess of urban driving.
Without a doubt, a good way to see that with an electric car we can also achieve very efficient consumption if we insist. Of course, the energy saving tips are the same, the two main ones being smooth driving and anticipation to the circumstances of the road and the rest of the users.
