New Cupra Terramar eyes up the family SUV class

• Likely to cost from under £40k
• Petrol, mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid options
• Sharp styling and a 540 litre boot

Since Cupra evolved from SEAT’s performance arm into a fully-fledged car brand, it has focused on launching sharply designed models with a sporting flavour. The Cupra Terramar is a bit more sensible, catering to families with a spacious cabin and a competitive price tag of under £40,000. Power will come from a range of petrol, mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid engines, and it’s expected to arrive early in 2025.

What does the Cupra Terramar look like?

Cupra certainly hasn’t shied away from its sporty styling altogether, but the Terramar does look a bit more restrained than the Cupra Tavascan. The Terramar is slightly shorter than a Volkswagen Tiguan, and its nose stands out thanks to Cupra’s new LED lighting signature with three points on either side. It could hardly be a shrinking violet with cars like the Nissan Qashqai and Kia Sportage in its sights.

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It also does away with a traditional grille, instead getting a series of lower intakes, with the outer two also incorporating a set of fog lights. Elsewhere, the wheelarches are body coloured, there are dark-painted alloy wheels but the car’s sides are relatively unfussy. At the rear, things get a bit more interesting again, with the three-point light motif repeated in the light clusters, which are also connected by a full-width LED bar. 

There’s a large rear diffuser-style lower bumper, finished in a contrasting silver colour, while Cupra’s trademark copper accents and badges are also present, and alloy wheels range in size from 18 to 20-inches in diameter.

How about the Terrarmar’s interior?

Cupra doesn’t want you to forget it’s a brand aimed at drivers, because the air vents and infotainment are clearly slanted towards the driver’s seat. A few hard plastics can be found around the cabin, but in most key areas there are attractive soft-touch surfaces and technical materials. Plentiful ambient lighting also helps brighten things up, with a light strip below the windscreen and on the front doors. Top models at launch will also get dark blue or purple leather with copper or silver stitching.

Its 12.9-inch infotainment screen will be familiar to Leon, Formentor and Tavascan owners. It gets the touch-sensitive volume and temperature sliders that have come in for some criticism in other models, but they are at least illuminated for easier use at night. It’s also said to feature a faster processor and new software for snappy responses.

Wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto are standard, and you’ll be able to keep your smartphone topped up with a 15-watt charging pad with its own cooling setup to prevent your device from getting too hot.

The Terramar will offer families decent practicality too, with a 540-litre boot (next to 550 litres for the Tiguan) that can expand to 630 litres if the adjustable second row is pushed all the way forwards. Unfortunately the plug-in hybrid version isn’t quite as impressive here, with 400-490 litres of boot space. There are also quite a few cubbies dotted around the cabin, padded door bins and a large glovebox.

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What engines does the new Cupra Terramar have?

The range kicks off with the eTSI 1.5 litre mild hybrid with 148bhp, which we’d expect to be the most popular model amongst private buyers. It comes with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox as standard along with front-wheel drive. While there are no official figures for this engine in the Terramar yet, in the Tiguan it returns just over 45mpg with CO2 emissions of around 140g/km.

A brace of purely petrol engines is next, both of which make use of the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder in different states of tune for 200bhp and 262bhp – the latter being similar to the Volkswagen Golf GTI’s engine. These will also get a seven-speed automatic, but they’ll also boast four-wheel drive.

Business drivers will likely be drawn to the two e-Hybrid models. With a 1.5-litre petrol engine, electric motor and 19kWh battery, these plug-in hybrid versions of the Terramar get 200bhp and 268bhp respectively, and they can drive for up to 70 miles between charges. It will also be possible to top up the battery at 50kW using a DC fast charger or 11kW using an AC socket. If you want a fully-electric Cupra, you’ll need to head over to the Tavascan in the showroom instead.

Read our in-depth review of the Cupra Tavascan, or take a look at our round-up of the best mid-size SUVs currently available