2023 Cupra Born electric car arrives in Australia

The upcoming 2023 Cupra Born electric car has landed on Australian soil for testing, ahead of its formal launch late in the fourth quarter of 2022 (November or December).

Photos published to the All Electric Vehicle Parts Australia page on Facebook show a production Born on the tarmac at Sydney Airport – finished in Vapor Grey, and riding on entry-level 18-inch 'Cyclone' alloy wheels – that's believed to be in the country for local testing and calibration of its software systems.

Speaking to Australian media in September, Cupra Australia boss Ben Wilks confirmed some local testing would be conducted for the Born to get it ready for sale: "the team [in Australia] are working at top speed to go through even some specific local testing to make sure that we've got the perfect offer when we launch that car."

Global Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths added: "We're doing everything we can to get a solution for the Cupra Born ... the [issues] are basically about the online connectivity of the cars and the system behind that. But there are workarounds that we're working on now in a very pragmatic way to have the cars ready to work in Australia.

"Because you have electric [power], the cars are safe, the cars will be homologated, it's just the online connectivity that's the task. But even if we have to go with the first cars offline that's what we will do."

Underpinned by the Volkswagen Group's new MEB dedicated electric platform, the Born is the first electric car from the new Cupra brand – the performance offshoot of Seat, a Spanish sibling to Volkswagen and Skoda – and takes the form of a Golf GTI-sized small car.

Specifications are yet to be confirmed for Australia, though variants initially available in Europe – likely including this car – pair a 58kWh lithium-ion battery with a 150kW/310Nm rear electric motor, for up to 424km of WLTP range and a 7.3-second 0-100km/h time.

Buyers will eventually be able to option an e-Boost performance pack, increasing outputs to 170kW/310Nm – on par with a pre-facelift Mk7 Volkswagen Golf GTI Performance – and dropping the 0-100km/h time to 6.6 seconds.

Smaller 45kWh and larger 77kWh batteries have been announced for future sale overseas – the latter offering up to 548km of WLTP range – in addition to less powerful motors.

A five to 80 per cent charge can be completed in as little as 35 minutes on a 120kW DC socket.

The 2023 Cupra Born is set to launch in Australia late in the fourth quarter of 2022 (November or December), following the broader Cupra brand's launch in July.

Pricing will be announced closer to launch, though in the UK prices of the mid-tier variant with the 58kWh battery and 150kW motor start from £33,735 ($AU62,400), and top out at £37,375 ($AU$69,200).

Using prices of other Australian electric cars as a guide, those figures could equate to local prices between $50,000 and $60,000 – though expect Australian models to offer more equipment as standard than their British counterparts.