► Cupra Born refreshed for 2026
► Tech and design updates included
► Launches in summer of this year
Cupra has updated its Born electric car for 2026, giving it a visual facelift and some better interior bits and simplifying your buying choices.
The overall look has been given a kick up the backside, with Cupra applying the brand’s now familiar triangular headlights and rear lights applied. The grille has been changed for better aerodynamic efficiency and there are some new wheel designs, too.
Inside, Cupra is keen to point out ‘higher perceived quality’ with some plusher (and recycled) materials being slapped onto the door inserts and some more up-to-date tech like a much larger digital instrument cluster with some racy graphics, as well as a new operating system for the main infotainment screen.
Cupra has also focused some attention on the steering wheel, tweaking the physical buttons offered, and the hot VZ version can be had with ‘CUPBucket’ sporty seats.
The range has been simplified to three choices; a 187bhp model using a 58kWh battery, a 228bhp model using a 79kWh battery and a top-end VZ model with 322bhp and a 78kWh battery. Cupra claims a 373mile range for those two upper models; the base spec claims 280 miles.
That hot VZ model claims a 5.6sec 0-62mph sprint, tops out at 124mph and benefits from some bespoke tuning to the suspension, braking and steering.
Want one? Cupra says production starts in the summer of 2026, with UK prices likely starting from around £37k.
Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
By Jake Groves
CAR's news editor; gamer, trainer freak and serial Lego-ist
