Cupra PHEVs selling like hotcakes

It seems Cupra has struck a chord with Aussies in the market for a sporty new electrified car, with news that 72 per cent of the nation’s initial allocation of Cupra Leon VZe and Cupra Formentor VZe vehicles now spoken for in just a few days.

Ninety-eight examples of the plug-in hybrid hatch and crossover went up for sale via the Cupra Australia website last Thursday morning and less than a week later just 27 remain available.

According to the new Spanish performance brand, more than half of Australia’s initial Cupra allocation was sold on the first day and most buyers opted to deck-out their vehicles with the full suite of optional extras.

“The rapid response to the first consignment of Cupra’s Leon and Formentor VZe PHEVs demonstrates the pent-up demand for genuine hybrids,” Cupra Australia director Ben Wilks said.

“Both the Leon and the Formentor have a fully battery-driven, zero-emission range of some 50km. That gets quite a few average commutes and school runs in before recharging.”

Wilks said Volkswagen Group Australia was endeavouring to secure more VZe models as soon as possible, while VGA corporate communications manager Paul Pottinger chalked the success up to the brand’s drive-away pricing.

“We thought they’d go pretty quickly, but even Cupra continues to be a bit taken aback by the way in which customers go for fully optioned variants,” he said.

Both the Leon and Formentor VZe are powered by a 1.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder (110kW/250Nm) and an 85kW/300Nm electric motor, yielding a total system output of 180kW/400Nm.

Drive is sent exclusively to the front wheels via a six-speed dual-clutch transmission as standard.

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