Within the Volkswagen Group, Seat is playing an increasingly smaller role as a traditional car brand. The result? The Leon – which has always been a real Seat – will not get a facelift at Seat, but the variants of it, which were released from Seat years ago by the Cupra, will. They are covered with a fresh design language dominated to a certain extent by triangles and thus build on the design elements that you have already seen on the Cupra Born. And what about the Cupra Formentor? It is also being renewed. The Formentor was the first Cupra that did not start its life with Seat earlier, but it did fit in well with the rest of the Seat family, especially at the front and rear. Cupra wants to prevent this and is also introducing the Formentor to its new corporate identity.
The old and still quite Seat-like nose…
More own
To be honest: we actually already knew what Cupra’s updated models would look like. At least, at least at the front. As early as June 2022, AutoWeek was able to show you the first plates of the renewed Cupra Leon and that the Formentor would follow was a certainty rather than a surprise. However, the optical changes that Cupra implements are significant. Just look at the front. There you will encounter headlights that not only have a different basic shape, but that are also equipped with a new light signature. The LED daytime running lights consist of three triangular elements. The previously round fog lights housed under the headlights are also exchanged for triangular ones. Have we had the novelties with that? Certainly not. The large and Seat-like hexagonal grille must be replaced. Cupra places a thin top cooling slot in its place. The completely new front bumper has a significantly larger lower grille cut into two parts. The Cupra logo on the piece of plastic that separates the upper grille and hood.
…and the new one!
There is also news on the back. More than meets the eye. Once again the Cupra Formentor has optically linked taillights, but they are quite different from those of the original. The complete light signature is new and consists of three groups with diagonal stripes. The Cupra logo, previously printed centrally in the tailgate, is swallowed up by the continuous LED strip and is now part of it in an illuminated form. On either side of the rear bumper you will find the now vertically oriented reflectors, more black plastic has been used around the license plate and Cupra has given the Formentor a completely new rear bumper with new, more angular exhaust tips. Cupra also introduces the set of new paint colors that seem mandatory for a facelift.
As enthusiastic as on the outside, Cupra uses the brush of innovation in the Formentor just as subtly. Every Formentor now has the multifunctional ‘super sports steering wheel’ and the crossover now has dashboard elements with a 3D pattern. We see additional copper-colored decoration around the selection stick of the machine. The bigger news lies in the arrival of the new infotainment screen. From now on, it has a diagonal of up to 12.9 inches (was: 12 inches). It runs new software and, just like in recent Volkswagen and Skoda models with this system, the ‘sliders’ placed under the screen are now illuminated. Didn’t the old audio system please your eardrums? Then Cupra has good news: from now on you can also order an extensive audio system from Sennheiser. It has 11 speakers, a subwoofer and a 390-watt amplifier.
‘CFO’ in the license plate obviously does not stand for Chief Financial Officer, but for cupra Formentor.
Longer breath
Although the Formentor VZ5 with 2.5 five-cylinder engine from Audi was never delivered in the Netherlands, the Cupra Formentor was available with many powertrains in our country. Including temporarily with a 150 hp 1.5 TSI and as a Formentor 310 with a 310 hp 2.0 TSI and four-wheel drive. Both powertrains are no longer available here. There were two plug-in hybrid engine versions, each with a 1.4 TSI as a combustion engine. Those two 204 hp and 245 hp powerful plug-in versions make way for new plug-in hybrid powertrains with a 1.5 TSI. Once again there is a 204 hp variant, but the 245 hp plug-in makes way for a 272 hp version. In the plug-in hybrid Cupra’s Formentor you not only have more power, but also a significantly greater range.
The 12.8 kWh (net) package of the previous plug-ins will make way for a package with 19.7 kWh of usable energy storage. This gives both plug-in versions a range of ‘more than 100 kilometers’. For comparison: the 204 hp and 245 hp previous plug flavors successively reached 59 and 54 kilometers on a full battery pack. More charging fun: the battery pack of the plug-in hybrid Formentors can be pumped with up to 50 kW of fresh electricity at the fast charger. At home you can charge at the wallbox with 11 kW, previously with only 3.6 kW.
Cupra Formentor
The Netherlands
The updated Cupra Formentor will come to the Netherlands in the summer. Prices are not available yet. Since the arrival of the Cupra Formentor in the Netherlands, 716 units have been registered in our country. The keys to 82 of them were handed over this year. The updated Leon and Formentor are not the only new or updated models that Cupra has ready. This year it will also launch the electric Tavascan on the market and launch a new plug-in hybrid SUV on the automotive market with the Terramar. The electric Raval will be added next year.
