Cupra Terramar in the driving report: a fleet alternative to the VW Tiguan
The Terramar is basically a somewhat smartly packaged Tiguan, which makes a good impression as a plug-in hybrid in the first driving report.
(Image: Cupra)
- Joaquim Oliveira
The car industry cannot be denied a certain creativity when it comes to finding gaps that nobody noticed before. Seat's Cupra sub-brand ventures particularly far in this respect, which is only surprising at first glance. Access to the Volkswagen Group's platforms enables a diversity that a small manufacturer could never achieve on its own. Measured on an industrial scale, it costs comparatively little to put your own model on wheels on such a basis. The recently presented Terramar uses the VW [] Tiguan as its basis and has to find its place between the similarly sized Cupra SUV models Ateca, Formentor and the battery-electric Tavascan. A Terramar 1.5 e-Hybrid was available to us for a first drive.
The Terramar is not only visually similar to the Tiguan, although Cupra tries to set its own accents as far as possible with a somewhat wildly designed front and a standard sports chassis. The SUV is 4.52 m long and 1.87 m wide. The wheelbase measures 2.68 m. That is enough for a decent amount of space. For a third rear passenger, however, it is too tight for the feet despite the sliding rear seat. The trunk of the plug-in hybrid we drove has a capacity of 450 liters, compared to 540 liters in the other models.
Good infotainment system
The interior appears to be cleanly finished and, in the sample model with plenty of additional options, also has a high-quality interior. The base model has a simpler appearance. Functionally, the dashboard can hardly be faulted. Almost everything is where you would expect it to be in a modern car. The start button in the steering wheel and the selector lever behind the wheel are unusual at first. The infotainment system takes a little getting used to, although Volkswagen has now successfully simplified this. The voice control now also works at a high level.
Cupra Terramar Innenraum (3 Bilder)
press-inform
)To be able to use all this, the "Digital Drive Package" must be ordered for 865 euros. Online services are then included free of charge for three years, with a further two years costing 70 euros. It is not yet clear what will happen from the sixth year onwards. The supplier Sennheiser – is still relatively new to Cupra. The collaboration began last year with a sound system for the Tavascan. In the Terramar, the system sounds excellent, considering the surcharge of 600 Euro.
Taut chassis
On the road, you quickly notice how direct the steering is, providing good feedback from the road. However, the conditions for this are anything but ideal. There is no all-wheel drive in the Terramar, at least for the time being. The front wheels therefore have to take over the driving and steering forces. It is therefore also perfectly clear that it is easy to provoke an overload of these tasks. With the non-alternative sports suspension, the body is 10 mm closer to the asphalt than in the Tiguan. As expected, it provides a lot of feedback from the road, but if you are looking for solid suspension comfort, you are in the wrong place. In the Performance or Cupra driving modes, the ride tends to be bumpy. This may give the impression that you can shred around corners a little faster. However, this is an illusion at the latest when these are not absolutely flat, as my colleague Clemens Gleich already described many years ago.
The tires also contributed to the overall somewhat unyielding impression of the chassis. Our car was fitted with 255/40 R20 tires. It may not be the most extreme example, but this tire format does not offer much sidewall height to help with damping. What's more, if you want to replace your Linglong or Goodride tires with a brand-name tire, you can expect to pay upwards of around 650 euros for a set in most cases.
Three drive systems for the time being
Three engines are listed in the Terramar's first price list, with more to follow in 2025. Manual transmission, diesel, all-wheel drive or a battery-electric drive are not expected. The base model is the 1.5 eTSI with 110 kW, which costs at least 43,020 euros. The 2.0 TSI with 195 kW is significantly more powerful, but is also considerably more expensive at at least 55,795 euros. The plug-in hybrid we drove costs at least 56,310 euros.
Cupra Terramar außen (3 Bilder)
It wasn't so long ago that Volkswagen's plug-in hybrids combined a short range resulting from a small battery with high power consumption and slow charging. Last year, VW polished up the key data considerably. The Terramar also benefits from this. Its battery offers a usable energy content of 19.7 kWh. This can be recharged with up to 11 kW of alternating current and up to 50 kW of direct current. From 10 to 80 percent, it takes at best 26 minutes at the DC charging station to raise the charge level from 10 to 80 percent, Cupra promises. The range in the WLTP should be between 110 and 120 km, depending on the tire format selected. In practice, the annual average is likely to be around 80 km, which is still a huge step compared to Volkswagen's previous PHEVs.
Plug-in hybrid with more range than previously usual
The long-stroke 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine delivers 130 kW and offers a maximum torque of 250 Nm. The electric motor contributes up to 85 kW. It is installed between the combustion engine and transmission. The system output is 200 kW and the maximum torque of the combination is 400 Nm. As you would expect, this Terramar accelerates powerfully when required, although the factory figures of 7.3 seconds in the standard sprint and a top speed of 215 km/h are by no means outstanding in this segment. The slightly weaker and, at 1750, around 150 kg lighter petrol engine in the 2.0 TSI takes almost 1.5 seconds off the sprint and achieves 243 km/h. If you are looking for maximum speedy performance, you are more likely to find your candidate here.
Everyone else will quickly realize that this PHEV also whets the appetite for electric drives. The spontaneous and quiet acceleration makes driving comfortable and enjoyable. Volkswagen has greatly simplified electric use in everyday life with a higher charging capacity and greater range. You don't have to like the concept of combustion engine and electric motor, but in many driving profiles there is now the opportunity to drive primarily electrically.
(Image: Cupra)
The truth is, however, that for the price of a Terramar e-Hybrid, the customer can also get a purely electric car of this size, even from Volkswagen. However, the Group expects that a relevant number of customers will continue to be interested in not buying an exclusively battery-electric drive for the foreseeable future. And for these customers, the plug-in hybrid, which is also offered in the Terramar, is a significantly better offer than Volkswagen's previous PHEV models.
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(olb)