Cupra is the sub brand of Seat which most will know is part of the VW empire.
The Cupra brand hopes to offer buyers a more sporty driving experience than other offerings from VAG. It’s not a Seat with a sporty theme but rather a brand in itself that offers unique cars with sporting overtones. Naturally there is plenty of crossover between the brands with floorpans, mechanicals and equipment shared. Nevertheless Cupra stands out on its own with its own distinctive style and a very definite lean towards the type of buyer who wants a more involving and maybe sporty driving theme.
The formula seems to be working! Launched as stand alone brand back in 2017 they have now sold over 800,000 cars worldwide and their market share here in Ireland continues to grow.
The Cupra retailer network is now at 16 dealerships nationwide and that too is expanding.
Their model range offers traditional internal combustion engines, plug-in-hybrid, and BEV’s with a total of five models available, namely, Cupra Born VZ, Cupra Formentor, Cupra Leon, and the newest models the Cupra Tavascan an all electric SUV and Cupra Terramar available in petrol, mild hybrid and PHEV.
With that in mind Cupra invited us motoring journalists to beautiful county Wicklow to view and drive the model range.
I must say they make for an impressive and stylish line up of cars. The two newest models in particular boast a very distinctive design and have real presence on the road.
The roads of county wicklow gave us a very good opportunity to drive all the models on some interesting routes. I took a refresher drive in the Cupra Born VZ, Leon and Formentor and all impressed. However I was more keen to spend some time in the two newest models the Tavascan and the Terramar.
First to the Tavascan which is available with a 77kWh battery and a claimed WLTP range of some 560km with either rear wheel drive or four wheel drive. Remember these WLTP range quotes are usually optimistic.
The Tavascan drove nicely and like pretty much all EV’s its quiet and comfortable. The interior will be familiar to a VW Id 4 driver with a similar dash layout consisting of a rather small driver info screen and a huge central touchscreen. Personally I prefer the interior design of the other Cupra models with a proper classical Digital dash and a more sensible sized central screen. The one thing I now find driving all EV’s is that they all pretty much drive the same. Its going to prove difficult for manufacturers to differentiate the driving experiences as unlike when you have a petrol engine the character of EV’s is pretty much the same. That said to those who want an EV the new Tavascan is worth considering and its distinctive and sporty style will appeal. Prices for the Tavascan start at €50,250.
The new Terramar PHEV is rather good and boasts an electric range of some 100km. That gives you the best of both worlds with petrol engine and an electric motor. For some doing short commutes the 100km range will mean they can drive mostly on electric power while for longer journeys the petrol engine has them covered.
I liked the way the new Terramar drove. It has a nice nimbleness and initial impressions are of a car that you will enjoy driving. Prices for the Cupra Terramar start at €46,500.