The cabin’s other standout feature is the huge – and I mean huge – touchscreen. It ’s 15in, clear, colourful and reasonably slick to operate. The in-built mapping is also pretty good but, as always, wireless phone mirroring (in my case, Android Auto) is better still.There are a few niggles so far, though. As with other MEB-based models, all of the car’s controls are operated via the touchscreen.
While there are permanent quick settings for temperature, window clearing and heated seats (the last two are optional extras), activating the heated steering wheel, for example, requires another menu to be accessed. Disabling any of the vehicle settings, such as the often inaccurate speed limit assist, necessitates four touches of the screen, which is three too many.
A trio of quick-access favourites can be pinned to the top of the screen, which makes life easier. More can be added via a dropdown, but so far I’ve found this to be quite temperamental. The speed sign monitoring option disappears on every restart, for example.
Elsewhere, the steering wheel’s haptic controls are proving to be a bit annoying. I constantly knock them by accident and they’re not the most responsive when purposely called on. And don’t get me started on the window switches, which require the extra step of touching a toggle if you wish to lower the rear glass.
Starting my tenure in winter has also allowed me to see the Tavascan, in terms of efficiency, at its worst. By that, I mean how its 77kWh battery copes with the cold and how many miles we can eke out of it, given that an EV’s efficiency typically takes a hit once the temperature dips below 10deg C.
As expected, it is currently not amazing, but neither is it bad. Having driven mostly motorway miles so far, I am averaging around 2.7mpkWh in the default Comfort driving mode.
That equates to 207 miles of range from a car that is claimed to offer 320 miles, even with the optional heat pump installed. (This should never be an optional extra in an EV.) Let ’s see what the spring weather brings.
For now, I’ve opted for climate control-limiting Range mode (one of five drive settings), which has boosted efficiency to 3.3mpkWh. Heated seats and steering wheel (both options) make up for the lack of warm air.