Audi S3 vs Cupra Born

What's the difference?

There are plenty of historical instances where a particular model within a broader range manages to hit the absolute sweet spot even though it’s not the fastest or most expensive variant. Porsche’s GTS specification across various models is a great example of this.

And at the risk of being proven wrong when the all-new RS3 comes along later this year, this car, the S3, might just pull off that feat.

Yes, the new RS3 will be more powerful and will offer even more grip and sporty flavour, but it will also be more expensive. And we defy anybody to drive the S3 and say that it lacks dynamism in any single area.

It’s also a magnificently balanced car with the right amount of attention paid to every aspect of its trim and performance. That, in essence, is where that `balanced’ label originates and even though it’s felt most in the actual driving experience, it permeates throughout the entire vehicle.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Cupra Born has so much going for it. An appealing price, long range, and super cool design chief among them.

I think the main thing holding it back will be that it doesn’t quite have the same out-and-out performance people have come to expect from a ‘hot hatch’ in the era of cars like the VW Golf R.

Importantly though, it delivers huge dollops of fun and driver engagement, something that's quite rare in the electric era.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the styling of the new Audi is just how similar it looks to the old model. Okay, this is not a new thing with Audi which has made a point of not throwing a handsome design into the dumpster in pursuit of new for new’s sake.

As such, the exterior lines are taut and typically Audi clean and, with the latest LED headlights and a refinement of the Audi trapezoidal grille, the look is fresh and crisp without being a novelty act.

Inside, the virtual dash display and large, relatively flat centre console almost amount to anti-styling. Or it would if the rest of the deal wasn’t so sharply angled towards a philosophy of less is more.

Again, this is classic modern-era Audi where the game is to make a complex layout look as simple as possible. The face-level air vents also seem to have borrowed a little Lamborghini (part of the Audi family) DNA.

I particularly like the new shift-by-wire gear selector which is a nifty looking switch but works just as intuitively as a conventional shift lever. New tech meets old muscle memory, I’m calling it.

It's worth mentioning (again) just how good Audi’s customisable dashboard display is. With sharp, clear graphics and the ability for the driver to prioritise the information on display at the time, the S3’s display is still about the best in the business.

Overall, ergonomics have always been a long-suit of this brand and there’s been a clear intention to follow that tradition this time around.

To stand out, any new brand should make a statement when it comes to design, and Cupra goes above and beyond to grab people’s attention.

It needs to, because Cupra is faced with the task of standing apart from its Volkswagen Group stablemates, especially the likes of Audi and Skoda.

One look at the Born, and it’s clear the brand has done an admirable job of separating its aggro hatch from the more tame Volkswagen ID.3 with which it shares its underpinnings.

I love its pugnacious face, which is designed to pierce air resistance in a similar fashion to the face of the Kia EV6, complete with its frowny light profile, bronze Cupra typeface, and dimples on the bonnet.

At the side, there’s the choice of almost Tesla-like sweeping aero designs for the standard 19-inch wheel option, or complex 80s rally-inspired wheels for the 20-inch Performance Pack hoops. The square beltline is perhaps the only spot where you can clearly see the Born’s relation to its ID.3 cousin, but I think the contrast flourish on the C-Pillar, which interrupts the roofline and makes it look more coupe-like, is a masterful touch.

This piece also wears a fishscale-like pattern, which is a motif that works its way through the entire car. In fact, the pattern is more than just theme-work for the Born specifically, but a deliberate pattern to interrupt plain plastics, which goes a long way to making sure no matter where you look, there’s a visual appeal to every corner of this car.

The inside continues this thoughtful and genuine ethos. Any area where a normal car would use a fake leather, or even plastic textured to look like leather, has been presented in a completely different way. The driver-focused instrument console, for example, is clad in a padded neoprene material, which is not only honest, but gives the interior a very modern look and feel.

The recycled seat materials offer a similar touch, and are comfortable in their bucket arrangement, too, and the neoprene finish continues here as a contrasting trim.

The colour palette is rich, with vivid blues, deep reds, a light smattering of tame silver rather than chrome, while the Cupra Bronze permeates to the car’s badges and highlights touches throughout.

This tone won’t be for everyone, and if you don’t like it, or the colour schemes, or even the car itself, that’s fine by Cupra. It wants to be controversial, and for a niche set of buyers, and says this contrast is the point of its design choices. If the amount of Borns sold before the car even landed is anything to go by, they’re on to something.

While SUV owners are often quick to tell you that they bought their car for its interior space, the truth is sometimes different. And without the huge wheel-wells and suspension towers of a high-riding SUV, the conventional hatch or sedan often has an advantage.

Certainly, there’s no lack of room in the S3 and the hatchback version has a wide hatch opening to make loading easier. The sedan, however, is a full 150mm longer than the hatch and that extra is all behind the rear seat.

So the boot is actually very useable with a capacity of 325 litres. Audi claims the same 325 litres for the Sportback, but that figure jumps to 1145 litres with the rear seat folded flat.

The rear seat in either variant is handily split 40/20/40 and there are storage nets on the back of each front seat, luggage nets in the cargo area and 12-volt outlets in both the centre-rear and luggage compartment. Even floor mats are standard.

Thanks to the Born’s VW Group all-electric MEB underpinnings, which are designed to make the most of interior space, the Born is much bigger on the inside than you might assume.

Clever packaging means a tall roof, glasshouse window structure, and a significant amount of adjustability and comfort for the front seats, with the clever digital instrument panel which is distilled to a handful of elements, and rides atop the column itself, so it moves as the driver adjusts it to maintain visibility.

The large touchscreen is oriented toward the driver, and has nice clear easy to use elements, although it is unfortunate the volume, temperature, and fan speed controls are a touch-based panel, and not easy-to-operate dials.

The rear seat offers impressive room, even behind my own seating position, and there’s sufficient headroom for me also, at 182cm tall. The cool recycled trim and comfortable seats continue to the rear row, although this car’s main practicality downside also resides here.

Opting for either pack will remove the rear seat, instead providing you with an odd cutout between the rear seats, and a drop-down armrest with a ski-port behind. Very European.

The boot measures 385 litres (VDA) which is relatively large for a hatchback, and it offers a nice low floor, impressive considering the motor is mounted below on the rear axle, although there’s no additional frunk storage for the Born.

$59,990 is the headline-grabbing price tag worn by the Cupra Born, and if you’ve kept up to date with the latest developments in terms of government incentives across Australia, you might have figured out it works out even cheaper than the before-on-roads price tag in some jurisdictions like Queensland.

This price makes it more affordable than base versions of its most direct competitors, the Tesla Model 3 (rear-wheel drive - $61,300) and the Polestar 2 ($63,900) while at the same time offering more range, at 511 WLTP-certified kilometres.

In fact it's one of the longer-range EVs on offer in Australia right now, which is impressive for a car that, size-wise, is on a playing field with cars like the Nissan Leaf (from $50,990) and GWM Ora (from $43,990).

Oh and there is just one other electric hatch in this kind of ‘hot hatch’ territory, the charming Mini Cooper SE (from $63,250) although opting for the diminutive Mini will mean putting up with just 233km of range.

To keep things simple, there’s only one Cupra Born variant, at least for now. From there, you can opt for one of two packages.

Standard equipment is high, with 19-inch alloy wheels, bucket seats clad in a cool recycled cloth material, LED exterior lights, dual-zone climate, keyless entry with keyless start and exit, a massive 12-inch multimedia touchscreen, a 5.3-inch digital instrument panel, wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, a wireless phone charger, and a 360-degree parking camera.

It is odd the seats are manually adjustable and the phone mirroring is wired at this price, and some may be slightly dismayed at the multimedia system. While it uses slick modern software with a stylish Cupra theme, it’s missing the air of always-online functionality which makes the Model 3 feel so smart, and adds an element of depth to the Polestar 2’s minimalist setup.

One thing which is very deliberate, however, is the omission of fake leather, and next-to-no real leather in the Cupra Born’s interior, even if you choose one of the optional packs. This is because Cupra wants to be more authentic and sustainable with its interior material choices.

The two option packs keep things straightforward. You can choose either the interior package ($2900) which adds a blue theme for the interior, consisting of a partially recycled microsuede seat material with highlights in Cupra’s signature bronze hue, electric adjust, heating, and message functions for the driver and front passenger, as well as a higher-grade Beats audio system.

Meanwhile the performance package ($2600) adds dynamic chassis control with adjustable dampers, larger 20-inch alloy wheels, an ESC-off function for rear-drive antics, and more aggressive Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres.

Interestingly, these performance tyres reduce range to 475km for performance package-equipped cars, while both packages render the Born a four-seater due to alterations to the rear bench.

Here’s where a lot of the extra currency demanded for the S3 goes. Forget the 1.5-litre engine in the base-model A3, and instead move to the two-litre four-cylinder as seen in the A4 40 TFSI. Then, add extra turbo-boost (up to 1.8 bar thanks to an efficient intercooler) different variable valve timing protocols, and a direct fuel-injection system with a specific calibration and the potential to create injector pressures of up to 350 bar, and you have the S3’s powerplant.

Maximum power is 228kW at anywhere from 5450 to 6500rpm, and maximum torque of 400Nm produced in a broad range between 2000 and 5450rpm.

Transmission is a seven-speed dual-clutch unit driving through all four wheels as per Audi’s Quattro mantra, although it’s important to note this version of Quattro is the simpler, arguably less pure, on-demand system where the car behaves as a front-drive platform until the all-wheel-drive system is required to step in.

That said, with 228kW under its wheels, that’s a fair bit of the time. And compared with previous systems, this one takes more notice of driver inputs and wheel-speed to be less reactive and more active.

The Cupra Born is interesting, in that it’s a rear-wheel drive hatchback. This provides both fun driving dynamics as well as a hike in efficiency, and in Australia, we get only the most powerful motor setup available.

This is a unit that produces a peak of 170kW under boost mode, and 310Nm of torque. This is approaching Golf GTI levels of power output, to give you an idea, although the Born is also some 400kg heavier, blunting its hot hatch potential somewhat.

Audi quotes an official combined cycle fuel consumption figure of 7.4L/100km for the A3 Sportback and 7.3 litres for the sedan.

That difference is a bit of a mystery given the sedan is heavier (by just five kilograms) until you consider that the combined figure includes freeway running, at which point the sedan’s extra 150mm of length and different rear diffuser may be the aerodynamic deal-breaker.

The Sportback emits 170 grams of CO2 per kilometre (166 for the sedan) and with the 55-litre tank fitted, both variants should have a range of around 750km between fill-ups.

The Born’s astounding 511km driving range is afforded by its enormous 82kWh battery, which is more like the size of battery you would see in a much larger vehicle such as a Kia EV6 for example.

Thankfully though it’s not all brute force via capacity, this car is also reasonably energy efficient, with an official rating of 17kWh/100km.

Not all EVs can hit the WLTP numbers due to many variables from wheel size, tyre composition, and even temperature management, but even enthusiastically driving the demo cars on our launch saw numbers between 17 - 23kWh/100km. Nothing outrageous by any means. 

Expect a more thorough evaluation of the Born’s range and efficiency when we’re able to test one for a longer period of time at a later date.

When it comes to charging, the Born’s DC charger maxes out at 170kW, allowing a 10-80 per cent top up time of roughly 30 minutes.

Meanwhile its AC inverter tops out at 11kW for a slow charging time of roughly six hours from 10 - 100 per cent.

The Born uses a Euro-standard Type 2 CCS charging connector. Unfortunately, there’s no V2L function this time around.

Some cars take a few minutes at the wheel before they start to get chatty. Not so the S3. From the moment you grab the lovely leather tiller, haul it into gear and give the perky little turbo-motor a squeeze on the throttle, the Audi is making all the right noises and giving clear, precise feedback on its every move.

Sometimes, cars with lots of tyre, lots of all-wheel drive grip and the sort of sharp steering fitted here, can start to feed back so many responses that it becomes difficult to know which one to respond to.

Not the S3, which seems tuned to a keener driver’s priorities (as it should be, of course). As a result, the steering feedback is distinct from what the rest of the front end is doing and everything else going on is clear, quantifiable and designed to improve the experience.

That even extends to the soundtrack which, Audi told us does not use any electronics to improve it beyond amplifying the engine-bay harmonics which use the windscreen and scuttle as their 'speaker.'

Combined with the active exhaust system, this car honestly sounds like a five-cylinder engine (I opened the bonnet to count the spark plugs to make sure it wasn’t. It isn’t.)

If you’ve ever driven a five-cylinder Audi or a V10-powered R8 (two in-line fives, really) the tune will be a familiar one. Lovely, and – again - such amazing attention to detail.

The 2.0-litre engine runs fairly high boost levels, but that doesn’t seem to have affected the way it storms off the mark. Neither does the dual-clutch transmission contribute any delay, provided you haven’t managed to stand on the brake and throttle at the same time (as many left-foot brakers might).

At that point, the driveline goes into sulk mode and will force you to wait a heartbeat or two before full power is restored. This can be an issue when trying to dart across a busy intersection or merge into a traffic flow.

It’s not a new thing to Audis, but remains an annoyance to those of us who equate having two pedals with having two feet.

The driver-selectable drive modes fitted to the S3 are interesting inasmuch as they actually make a meaningful difference to the way the car operates. They alter the transmission shift points, the throttle sensitivity, steering weight and damper settings.

'Comfort' mode will be the default for most owners, and while 'Dynamic' does sharpen up the dampers ever-so-slightly beyond an acceptable day-to-day level of firmness, it also adds weight to the steering feedback.

Frankly, I don’t think it needs it and simply adding resistance feels like a token gesture. And since the steering has a (non-negotiable) variable rate in the first place, bigger inputs equal a bigger proportionate change of direction anyway.

The damping control is now the more sophisticated magnetic-hydraulic type where hydraulic pressure varies the valving rather than the simpler, previous system of energising an electro-magnet to alter the viscosity of the damping fluid.

This more finite control system has allowed more 'bandwidth' as Audi puts it, between Comfort and Dynamic damper settings.

While the auto mode is almost prescient, it’s not actually pre-emptive but rather takes into account suspension deflection, wheel-speed and driver inputs to come up with a combination of settings to make the most of the situation.

And if you really want to fiddle, you can choose 'Individual' and create an overall setting that combines bits of Comfort and Dynamic with a smattering of 'Efficiency' thrown in.

Toggle down to Dynamic and throw the S3 at some bends and it soon emerges as a pretty gripped-up piece of equipment. The front-drive bias is not really noticeable, but then neither is the transition where the computer begins to engage the rear multi-plate clutch to turn the rear axle into an active participant.

There’s certainly no lack of grip at any stage of a typical corner, and even the odd unexpected damp patch poses no awkward questions. Perhaps the biggest grumble would be the tyre roar at highway speeds, but that’s often the price of performance rubber.

We’ve come to understand hot hatchbacks in certain terms, and these are defined by lightweight design, firm suspension, and over-sized engines in the front, usually driving the front wheels.

But the Born flips pretty much the whole formula upside down. It’s heavy, rear-wheel drive, not as powerful as perhaps it could be, and has comparatively forgiving suspension.

In fact, the Born has one of the most supple suspension tunes for an electric car in this price bracket, being much more comfortable and adept at absorbing rough conditions than a Model 3 or a Polestar 2 for example.

When it comes to power, it’s instantly responsive, as any EV should be, but in a straight line you won’t be outrunning even a base Model 3, or even a Golf GTI.

Whether it’s truly a hot hatch then will depend on how you define this concept, because so long as you don’t care about straight-line speed, the Cupra Born is an absolute blast.

Unexpectedly, this unusual formula works. The Born is a car with a completely different character to every other EV at this price. Rather than being tight and locked-down, the Born feels much more free and fun, with its ride and particularly its steering combining with the rear-drive push to make for a playful little car, with an organic feel to its feedback.

Again, unlike a lot of electric cars, the Born’s flexible approach to the road results in a car which demands much more from the driver. The traction control computer doesn’t conspire with the electric motors and brakes to sanitise the experience, this car will let you make mistakes within reason.

It’s possible to eke out a cheeky slide if you push it, for example, and the way the weight of the battery shifts the car around is more entertaining than unsettling, like it is in some small electric SUVs.

Even the regenerative braking is comparatively hands-off. It doesn’t have the single-pedal driving experience that some EV adopters are after, instead it will gradually taper speed off, relying on the driver to actually use the blended braking on the brake pedal itself, even when the car is set to the most aggressive ‘B’ mode. Again, this means the driver has to actually drive the car, jabbing the brakes in on sharp corners.

Thankfully, there’s no optional extra pricey safety pack in the Cupra Born range, with standard active equipment including adaptive cruise control, auto emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, driver attention alert, and a 360-degree parking camera.

There are also front and rear parking sensors, exit warning systems (uses the blind spot system to alert someone not to open their door into traffic), and a suite of seven airbags, including a centre airbag.

The safety suite is capped off with ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the rear seats.

The Born already carries a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating to a 2023 standard, scoring reasonably highly across all categories.

Audi has finally had to cave in and extend its warranty to match its competition. So, any new Audi sold after January 1 this year moves up to a five-year/unlimited kilometre factory warranty; a big step up from the previous three years of cover.

S3 buyers can also opt for Audi’s five-year service plan which costs $2580. Servicing is set down for every 15,000km or 12 months.

Cupra offers the Born with a five-year and unlimited kilometre warranty, as well as the choice of either a three- or five-year service pack. Interestingly, the three year pack, at $999, is the same price as it is for combustion vehicles in Cupra’s range, while the five-year pack is some $400 cheaper at $1590. Either way, this pack pricing isn’t outrageous when you break it down by annual cost, but many rivals in the electric space are offering free or very cheap servicing over the same period.