Seven day test: 2025 Cupra Formentor PHEV. One for the tribe
Life’s about to get harder for the Cupra Formentor VZe.
From April 1 2025, it, like every other plug-in hybrid (PHEV), will no longer be considered a zero or low emissions vehicle under fringe benefits tax (FBT) law.
In recent years, many PHEV sales have been on account of this money saver through a novated lease. It’s driven Aussies into plug-in hybrids if they’re not prepared to go full EV.
But from now, this Cupra must sell on its merits alone. And with a facelifted model due later this year, it makes the current Formentor a tougher sell.
Good news is there are ample positives, but price is a challenge. From $64,990 before on-roads, or $67,990 plus charges for our range-topping Tribe Edition, the Formentor VZe medium SUV plays in the Tesla Model Y ballpark.
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It also price-matches the beautiful Peugeot 408 PHEV and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, but is significantly pricier than an MG HS PHEV, Haval H6 PHEV or BYD Sealion 6 PHEV, all vying for business in the electrified mid-sized SUV segment.
Day 1: Handsome chap, aren’t you?
Not many new cars today attract comments from total strangers, but the Formentor somehow manages to stand out among the plague of SUVs.
Soon after collecting it, a random bloke wanders over, says “everything about” the car is “gorgeous”, and what the hell is it? I explain it’s a Cupra, part of the Volkswagen Group, and aimed at the sportier buyer.
The Formentor looks like a mildly jacked-up hot hatchback, and our Tribe Edition ups the flash with 19-inch black and copper alloys, LED lights all-round and a rear spoiler.
It looks properly sharp with its shark-nose front, and the copper Cupra badges help it look pretty mean over the black body.
Even so, Cupras kinda confuse me. I thought they were supposed to be VW Group’s truly sporting, affordable sub-brand. Yet they ply most of their trade with automatic SUVs, when Skoda, Volkswagen and Audi all do likewise.
I wish they’d have kept Cupra just for hot hatches and performance sedans and wagons, and who knows, even with three-pedals and a manual shifter? But driving enthusiasts like me are – we’re forever reminded – a dying breed.
The Formentor PHEV has solid numbers. It produces 180kW/400Nm from its 1.4-litre turbo four-cylinder petrol allied with an electric motor and 10.9kWh battery. It’s all sent through the front wheels, manages 0-100km/h in 7.0 seconds, and offers around 50km range on electric only.
First impressions are the cabin presents well, just maybe not $67,990-well. Plastics are soft except a hard plastic-fantastic centre console; leather-appointed bucket seats in petrol blue look and feel chunky and supportive, with lovely copper stitching to match the same on the dash, door and steering wheel.
A mighty 12-inch infotainment screen,10.25-inch digital driver display, wireless CarPlay/Android Auto and wireless charging are flash, but there’s no sunroof/panoramic roof as standard – you need another $2150 for that.
I start with a full battery and 53km electric range, but I find the Battery Manager in the screen to select battery saving, as my drive home is all highway and I don’t wish to burn it this way.
Day 2: Meet the family
The kids like the Formentor’s copper flashes and, as my son (12) suggests, its Transformers styling.
Despite this Cupra’s sloping coupe-like rear roofline, headroom in the back’s decent, plus the seat backs recline. They don’t slide forward for greater versatility, which is a shame as the boot’s damn small for a medium SUV.
There’s only 345L of cargo storage once the power tailgate lifts, and some of that’s taken up with the included Mode 2 and Mode 3 charging cables. There’s no underfloor storage or a spare wheel, just a repair kit. We can blame the hybrid gubbins for that.
It makes this PHEV far less of a practical family car than, say, a Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in, but our Cupra’s sportier bent will appeal to a different buyer.
With the petrol and electric in tandem, it’s a punchy performer and even makes a rorty exhaust note when you put the shoe in. Different drive modes bring adaptive suspension into play, and all feels a bit (but not much) firmer and more responsive in “Cupra” mode rather than Comfort or Sport.
There are paddles on the flat-bottom steering wheel to bring more engagement, but they’re small and feel a bit cheap. Proper metal paddles as key touchpoints make a huge difference.
You sit low for an SUV, and it’s a cracking little chassis, meaning this Cupra SUV is decent fun to punt around. The six-speed DSG gearbox is sharp, and happily non-jerky at low speeds, helped in this work by the electric motor.
I leave it in hybrid mode and it’s truly set and forget around town. It runs as an electric only at low speed, then smoothly chimes in the petrol if you ask for a bit of poke.
First impressions are it’s a beautiful thing to live with. Some cars just feel like a comfy and familiar pair of boots.
Day 3 – Eco run
There are plenty of folk who reckon PHEVs are “the worst of both worlds,” but I’ve never bought into this.
Plug-ins have seen a decent jump in popularity this past year, helped by the FBT exemption, but also as people accept they really can do most of their daily driving with roughly 50km of range.
And negative press around full EV public charging woes (and resale values) means small battery PHEVs make sense. For example, our Formentor’s empty battery can be fully charged overnight using a domestic power socket. Reckon on about five hours from empty to full doing it this way.
It only handles a maximum AC charge rate of 3.6kW, so even with a home wallbox, charge time is reduced to a barely better 3.5 hours. It’s a car you can get away with charging just on your ordinary power point. It doesn’t accept public DC charging.
Doing the school and work runs, I opt for EV-only mode. A bit of tyre noise aside, it’s whisper quiet and impressively smooth, just like a quality EV. I keep throttle inputs light to avoid the petrol powering up, but the electric motor offers enough torque (330Nm) to pull us along with some verve and rapid response on its own.
There are a few regeneration modes to pick, but none is particularly strong. Sadly, and much like most EVs and PHEVs, brake feel itself is too artificial.
It’s clear the 50km range easily covers most of my daily duties. But I run the battery dry, then move to hybrid mode and – with some regen – a little energy is thrown back to keep the electric motor interested. It’s all very seamless.
Day 4 – Home charging
Into the garage and onto charge overnight (just using 10 amps), it’s nice to start today with maximum capacity and 55km range showing.
News reports show Cyclone Alfred is about to hit our little corner of Queensland, and power outages are expected, possibly for a few days. No problem I tell the family, I’m sure our PHEV has a vehicle-to-load (V2L) or at the very least its own power socket in the boot.
Dammit. Nothing to be found, unlike the Hyundai Ioniq 5 we had recently, which we used to run the coffee machine in “emergency” circumstances. Even mild hybrid Mazda SUVs have domestic sockets, so I curse the omission from our Cupra plug-in.
Thing is, this would be bloody handy at times like this. With the power out, being able to have your car power up your family’s collection of smartphones, tablets and laptops would make blackout life more tolerable.
Then think of the benefit of running an extension cord from the car to the kitchen to power a microwave, air fryer or electric oven. Even plug in the fridge freezer to keep food cold.
My neighbour has a Tesla Model Y, and he reports likewise. No way of utilising his car’s battery to power domestic stuff. We agree we both should have got a V2L car for cyclone week.
Day 5 – Climate change
After proving useless in our (thankfully brief) power outage, the Formentor PHEV also loses browny points for overly-fussy climate control.
There’s a touch panel which you must slide your finger along to change the temperature, which means eyes off the road for longer than you’d have with just a simple turney knob.
Even after almost a week of living with this car, I haven’t been able to change temperature easily nor access fan speed quickly. It, like the heated seat controls, are through the big screen.
At least it has shortcut tabs, but it’s more complicated than it need be. However, it’s a high quality and fast touchscreen, and the 360-degree birds-eye view camera’s excellent for parking.
The digital driver’s display is also a good ’un, with loads of customisation options. I’m still not sure how useful the g-force monitor will be to your average Formentor PHEV driver, but kudos for showing the Apple CarPlay’s navigation through this cluster, rather than just the centre screen.
Day 6 – Wet weather testing
The much-feared cyclone has brought serious rain and drenched roads. Into Cupra mode we go, and on the first wet roundabout I’m impressed with this PHEV’s tyre grip. Much more performance than eco-oriented rubber, thankfully, and the car’s decent fun to throw around, while feeling perfectly in control.
With the adaptive suspension, Comfort proves reasonably cushy. It’s clear this SUV’s a damn fine all-rounder, as we’ve become accustomed to from Cupra’s stablemate VW and Skoda SUV offerings.
You just click with some cars. Perhaps it’s the familiarity (we own a VW Golf), but the drive experience and comfort levels are spot-on here for a family SUV.
Goodies like power memory driver’s seat (but not passenger), solid Beats audio, tri-zone air con and adaptive cruise control cover the key must-haves four our family car.
And unlike most modern Hyundais, Kias and Chinese cars, the Cupra’s driver assist tends to stay quiet and not overly-nannying. There’s advanced auto emergency braking, lane assist, rear cross traffic alert and exit warning, and only in one instance did it give a startling beep and ordered me to “Stay in the centre of the lane!” despite me not being close to the road’s edge. I tell it to pipe down.
Day 7 – You shall be missed
The more I live with plug-in hybrids, the more convinced I am they work for our lifestyle. I know this isn’t the case for many, especially if you don’t have a driveway or garage to home charge.
Public AC charging a PHEV’s a pain, although if there are handy chargers at shopping centres (especially if they’re free) it’s worth doing.
After around 500 kilometres, mainly in town and on the highway, we’ve averaged 4.7L/100km fuel use from the petrol engine. That’s very good but not spectacular as that includes the electric backup, which I twice recharged by paying for electricity.
I’ve averaged around 5.0L/100km in (self-charging) hybrid medium SUVs like the Toyota RAV4 and Kia Sportage. So it shows that for proper fuel savings you want to run a Formentor PHEV in EV-only as much as possible. Especially if you can recharge the battery for free with solar.
A service pack for five-years/75,000km is a reasonable $1990; Cupra’s warranty’s five-years/unlimited kms, and the battery warranty’s the standard eight-years/160,000km. The petrol engine needs pricier 95 RON, by the way.
A week of Formentor PHEV life has been enjoyable – this is an impressive if never spectacular offering, has pleasing performance, solid electric range and looks far better than most homogenised SUV designs.
But… it’s expensive, isn’t it?
Our Tribe Edition at $67,990 looks chunky, especially next to some quality full EVs at that price. Plus, it’s over $20k above a BYD Sealion 6 Essential PHEV, which has a larger battery and impressive 92km range. But the Chinese plug-in doesn’t look, feel or drive as good as our Cupra.
A Base edition Formentor PHEV’s $64,990 before on-roads, but I reckon Cupra will do deals. On the ex-demo market there’s a 2023 model (815km showing) for $49,990, while there’s a handful under $60,000 drive-away with a few thousand on the clock.
If a PHEV’s your target, this Spanish charmer’s unlikely to disappoint anyone but your bank manager. If only that PHEV FBT exemption wasn’t being removed this Cupra would look a lot more appealing.
2025 Cupra Formentor VZe PHEV Tribe Edition specifications
Price: $67,990 (plus on-road costs)
Basics: PHEV, 5 seats, 5 doors, medium SUV, FWD
Range: 58km (NEDC), about 47km as tested
Battery capacity: 10.9kWh
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km
Drivetrain: 180kW/400Nm (total PHEV system)
AC charging: 3.6kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: N/A
0-100km/h: 7.0 seconds
