CarBrandLogos archive · Cupra · 2020
The first car built as a Cupra from the start, rather than a hotted-up SEAT.
Discover the storyPhoto: Alexander-93 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Cupra Formentor, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
Cupra had been SEAT's performance badge since the 1990s. It was spun off as a separate brand in 2018, and the Formentor, launched in 2020, was the first model designed for it alone — no SEAT equivalent exists.
Cupra Formentor VZ5 Auto Zuerich 2021 IMG 0569 · Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0
02
Underneath it is Volkswagen Group MQB Evo, which means it shares its bones with the Golf, the Ateca and the Audi Q3, but the packaging is distinct: lower and longer than a typical compact crossover, closer to a raised hatchback than an SUV, with a design by Alberto Torrecillas under Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos that is sharper and more aggressive than anything SEAT sells. It is built at Martorell in Catalonia.
Cupra Formentor VZ5 1X7A6987 · Alexander-93 · CC BY-SA 4.0
03
The engine range runs from a 1.5 TSI four to plug-in hybrids and, at the top, the VZ5 — the 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo engine from the Audi RS3, fitted with a torque-splitting rear differential and produced in strictly limited numbers. That car is the reason the Formentor has credibility with enthusiasts rather than merely with SEAT's marketing department.
Cupra Formentor VZ5 1X7A7000 · Alexander-93 · CC BY-SA 4.0
04
Commercially it worked. The Formentor became Cupra's best-selling model and carried the brand from an experiment to a genuinely profitable part of the Volkswagen Group, with sales growing while SEAT's own volumes declined.
At a glance
Produced
2020–presentEngine
Petrol engineBody
5-door SUVTechnical specification
Contemporaries from the 2020s
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