Cupra Formentor confirmed for Australia

Australia will become the first country outside of Europe to introduce the Cupra performance brand, and it will be spearheaded by the Cupra Formentor mid-size coupe-SUV in the second quarter of next year.

The announcement was made by Cupra’s parent company Seat overnight in Spain, ahead of official local confirmation next month, when the full Cupra Australia range will be revealed.

At this stage it’s not clear whether Australians will be offered the standard Cupra Formentor launched in Europe last October, or the plug-in e-Hybrid version announced last month.

carsales understands the Cupra Formentor could be joined here by the Volkswagen Golf-sized Cupra Leon hatch and the VW Tiguan-sized Cupra Ateca SUV. The Formentor e-Hybrid will be Cupra’s second plug-in hybrid model after the Leon e-Hybrid.

If either PHEV is sold here it would likely beat the first electrified models to be sold in Australia by sister Volkswagen Group brands Skoda and Volkswagen. VW won’t launch the first of its new family of ID-badged EVs until at least late 2023.

During the company’s annual press conference yesterday, Seat president Wayne Griffiths said the Cupra Tavascan, based on Volkswagen Group’s MEB EV platform, will become the brand’s second all-electric model after this year’s new Cupra Born EV, in 2024. It hopes to produce more than 500,000 urban EVs annually in Spain beyond 2025.

Cupra has its roots entirely in driver-focused performance cars and it will be rolled into the expanded and remodelled Volkswagen-Audi presence in Australia.

It will be the first non-Chinese brand to dive into the Australian new-car maelstrom in the past decade, although Renault did spin-off the Alpine A110 coupe as part of its line-up before it hands over Australian distribution rights for the French brand to independent importer Ateco Automotive on April 1.

Unlike aggressive Chinese companies such as MG and GWM, there is no plan for Cupra to become a full-line brand and even in Europe it focuses only on a limited line-up of small hatchbacks and SUVs.

“Cupra will not be for everyone. But for some people it will be everything,” Volkswagen Group Australia managing director Michael Bartsch told carsales.

“We expect to have a timeline now that will have the first cars here in the middle of next year.”

Although the decision to bring Cupra to Australia was announced in Spain last night, negotiations on the deal have been underway for more than a year but kept a closely-guarded secret in Australia.

“This was one of those serendipitous moments,” said Bartsch. “We were looking at how we could expand the business here as a result of market contraction and they were looking at how to expand the Cupra brand.

“It was ambitions by both parties.”

Seat used its annual press conference last night to present its plan to lead the electrification of the Spanish auto industry, dubbed Future Fast Forward, and to expand into the Asia-Pacific region starting with Australia in 2022.

“Australia is a young market and Cupra is a young brand,” said Seat chief Griffiths. “Customers are looking for new brands, there is a high middle-class income and it is a progressive society. We are confident that Cupra can be successful in this country.”

Speaking to carsales' Mexican affiliate Autologia.com.mx, Griffiths said: “Mexico is the most important market outside of Europe, so is our number one priority. We just announced we want to participate in Asia-pacific zone and Australia. I think Cupra gives us a possibility to globalise better than we can do it with Seat.

“[Australia] Is a youth open market and could be considered a young country to. The people are open-minded, very cosmopolitan. I think that the stylish cars like our crossover models that we are producing are great for the Australian buyers. They like the sport cars, and the design and the Barcelona signature could work in that country.”

Seat launched Cupra as a performance and lifestyle sub-brand in Europe in early 2018, but the name was seen before then on some go-faster Seat models.

In Australia, Seat failed to find enough friends when it was sold locally as a cheapie brand in the 1990s under an independent distributor and the brand was withdrawn after less than five years.

The Cupra Formentor is the first vehicle to be designed and developed exclusively as a Cupra model and has just received a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating under the latest test procedures.

Another obvious choice for Australia is the Ateca SUV, but despite its enthusiasm for the new member of its family, Volkswagen Group Australia is not going into any detail beyond the basics – for now.

“Volkswagen Group Australia is expanding,” Bartsch said.

“It’s still very early days. We haven’t even made an announcement to the dealers. We have a lot of work to do on finalising the business model. But it’s fair to say it will be a heavily digitised business model.”

But Bartsch said the integration of Cupra is part of a larger strategic plan.

“The commitment to Cupra follows the announcement last month that Audi Australia will soon be welcomed into Volkswagen Group Australia’s national sales company,” he said.

“Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda each retain their entirely distinct identities, but perhaps no brand more so than Cupra with its uniquely sporting selection of SUVs and compact cars.”

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Cupra achieved 11 per cent growth last year with 27,400 sales.

This year it intends to launch its first EV, the Cupra Born, and will compete in the Extreme E electric off-road competition, which has drawn entries from Formula 1 world champions Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, with Jenson Button and Australia’s Molly Taylor among the high-profile drivers.

The Cupra Formentor takes a similar approach to the Ford Puma, as a cross between a hot hatch and a baby SUV.

Not surprisingly, its roots can be traced back to the Volkswagen Golf and as well as the newly-announced plug-in hybrid version there is a turbocharged all-wheel drive Formentor with a similar powertrain to the Golf R.

In New Zealand, where the Cupra Formentor is already on sale, it’s available with a choice of 140kW and 228kW turbo engines and positioned more than $5000 below the new Mk8 Volkswagen Golf GTI, with the Leon and Ateca priced above it.

And the name? Although Formentor sounds like it could be something evil from a Harry Potter book, it is actually a scenic peninsula in the Majorca island region of Spain.