Cupra Terramar Review 2025 : A sportier Tiguan alternative

What is the Cupra Terramar?

You might think that the new Cupra Terramar is just another mid-size family SUV, but the Spanish performance brand would take issue with that view. This is a car designed to sit at the very sportiest end of the spectrum when compared to its peers, peers that include cars as diverse as the Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, Skoda Kodiaq, BMW X1 and the Audi Q3.

Talking of the Audi Q3, the Terramar actually sits on the same MQB Evo platform that’ll form the basis of the next iteration of that car, and that already underpins the latest Volkswagen Tiguan, although the Terramar is undoubtedly a far sportier offering than its rather straight-laced VW counterpart, as evidenced by its more athletic proportions and aggressive styling details. The Terramar is also built in Audi’s factory in Gyor, Hungary.

It’s available either with pure petrol power, as a mild hybrid, or as a plug-in hybrid SUV, and it sits at the top of the brand’s range of regular SUVs, above the Cupra Formentor and the Cupra Ateca (the latter of which is still on sale, but is also ancient, so probably won’t be for long). That combustion-engine offering separates it from the brand's electric car range, including the Cupra Born and the Cupra Tavascan.

How practical is it?

The new Cupra Terramar is, unsurprisingly, very similar to the Tiguan in terms of size, so it’s of even less surprise that it provides a very similar amount of interior space. The front seats have plenty, while the rear seats have enough headroom and legroom for a pair of six-foot adults to easily get comfortable. Some rivals give more room to stretch out, but the Terramar certainly isn’t cramped. Provided you have the sliding rear seat set close to the rearmost position of its runners, that is. Set it at the front end of its 15cm travel, and rear legroom becomes very tight indeed, although it does boost your boot space.

A third person can squeeze into the back for short trips, and although the middle seat is narrower than those either side, it’s not at too much of a disadvantage, although whoever winds up there will have to sit with their feet straddled either side of a bulky transmission tunnel.

The boot space you get depends on which version you go for. In the petrol model, you get between 540 litres and 642 litres, depending on where the sliding rear seat is positioned, but that’s assuming you take out the removable boot floor. With it in place, the boot is more or less the same size as the plug-in hybrid’s, which stands at between 400 litres and 490 litres.

The versatile 40/20/40 split folding rear seats drop easily, and that removable boot floor levels off the step up to the folded rear seatbacks, and the lip at the entrance to the boot as well. What’s more, the backrests lie flat, so your extended load area has no steps or slopes to get in the way when sliding in heavy items.

The Terramar’s cabin feels generally high in quality, so it looks like it should stand up well to family use. Most of the materials you interact with are nice and touchy-feely, with plenty of cushioned surfaces and pleasant metallic trims to brighten things up.

When you’re sat in the back, though, you’ll notice the quality deteriorates slightly: the plastics that surround you are harder and scratchier than they are up front. It’s not severe enough to undermine the general feeling of quality or durability, but rivals are a bit more uniform in the standard of their fit and finish.

What’s it like to drive?

There's a two-tier structure to the Cupra Terramar model range. The more modest models are badged V (V1 or V2), and come with more modestly powered engines, while the VZ models (VZ1 and VZ2) come with punchier powerplants.

The starting point for the V models is a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol with mild hybrid technology (badged eTSI), making 148bhp. Then come a 2.0-litre turbo, and a plug-in hybrid that uses the 1.5 petrol engine combined with an electric motor. Both of these variants deliver 201bhp.

VZ models, meanwhile, come with uprated versions of the 2.0-litre petrol and the PHEV. The former has 261bhp driving all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, while the latter delivers a total of 268bhp to the front wheels through a six-speed automatic gearbox.

So far, we’ve only had the opportunity to drive the two powerful VZ versions. The 261bhp petrol has an official 0-62mph time of 5.9 seconds, while the PHEV does the same sprint in 7.3 seconds, despite its superior power output. However, neither feels as quick as those figures suggest. The petrol feels muscular and flexible, so it’s eager enough to make hasty progress when requested, but it never quite delivers that last layer of pace that would make it feel properly fast.

In comparison, meanwhile, the Hybrid feels positively leisurely, which we put down to the extra weight it’s carrying (154kg). We reckon that the level of performance on offer will be fine for the majority of drivers, but it doesn’t exactly feel like the high-performance offering that Cupra promises.

The other thing you’ll notice about the PHEV is its rather inconsistent power delivery. On some occasions, you’ll floor the throttle and very little will happen in the way of extra forward motion, while on others, you’ll barely move your accelerator foot, and the powertrain will have you careering forwards. That means you’re never quite sure what level of acceleration the car is going to deliver at any given time.

The two most powerful versions of the Terramar that we’ve driven come as standard with adaptive suspension that varies the stiffness of its dampers in various stages according to which of the driving modes you select (more modest versions have passive sports suspension that’s 10mm lower than the settings found on the VW Tiguan). Despite this similarity, though, the two versions are markedly different in how they behave on the road.

Let’s begin with the 2.0-litre petrol version. You definitely feel the difference in suspension stiffness as you scroll through the modes: the comfort-orientated ones make things marginally more pliant, while the sportier ones introduce more firmness that reigns in body movements more effectively for crisper cornering. Regardless of mode, however, the car changes direction with impressive sharpness, with plentiful grip and traction from the standard four-wheel drive, and tight body control. The steering is especially praiseworthy, because it’s beautifully weighted, while also feeling responsive and connected.

The car’s ride comfort is a little harder to gauge. It felt forgiving enough on the immaculate Spanish roads that we tested the car on, but over the few bumps we did encounter, there was an underlying firmness that made us wonder whether the Terramar might not deal so well with the effects of a more challenging British road surface. Only time will tell.

That same caveat applies to the PHEV version, both on the underlying firmness, and on the fact that we’ll have to experience the car on a broken-up British road surface before we can deliver a definitive verdict. Again, the differences in suspension stiffness can be detected from mode to mode, although they’re not quite as pronounced as they are in the petrol. The bigger issue, though, is that the ride in the PHEV generally feels a little firmer than in the petrol: there’s slightly more tremble and fidget at pretty much all road speeds. Again, we suspect this might be due to the extra weight sitting on the springs.

That extra weight is evident in the way the PHEV handles, too. It feels like the tyres have to work harder to cling on to the road surface (it won't help that there's no four-wheel drive on the PHEV, being front-drive-only), you can feel more weight transfer as the car changes direction, and you have to give the brake pedal a much harder shove to get the vehicle to come to a stop (and that’s despite both our test cars being fitted with the optional high-performance Akebono brakes). It’s still an enjoyable car to drive, the hybrid, but its driving dynamics are just a little less polished than the petrol’s.

When it comes to refinement, wind- and road noise are fairly par for the course on both versions, so high-speed refinement is fairly average. The 2.0-litre petrol engine is smooth and subdued regardless of its work rate, and stays distant and unstressed on the motorway. Select Performance or Cupra modes, and a synthetic burbly engine noise is piped into the cabin. Some will consider this a cheerful embellishment, while others will think it’s a contrived gimmick. You'll make your own mind up on that.

The PHEV version is predictably very quiet when running around on electric-only power. Keep your throttle inputs gentle, and it can do this up to 87mph. When the petrol engine does kick in, it stays fairly quiet at low-to-moderate engine speeds, but it gets rather loud and thrashy when made to work harder.

This can happen quite a lot, too. That’s because the automatic transmission is a bit clumsy in the way it selects gears, and this can often send the engine revs soaring, even when your accelerator foot isn’t being particularly demanding.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

All versions of the Terramar get exactly the same infotainment system, which supports DAB radio, Bluetooth, built-in satnav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Four USB ports are on hand to keep everyone’s devices charged, meanwhile

There’s a 10.25-inch digital instrument display behind the steering wheel, and a 12.9-inch central touchscreen mounted on the dashboard. It all looks good, with crisp, colourful graphics, and the sensitivity of the central screen is better than on many touchscreen systems, so you shouldn’t have to jab at an on-screen icon with your finger several times before your instruction registers.

There are still significant usability issues with the system, though. The home screen looks cluttered up with too many icons: icons that are ambiguously designed so that it’s not immediately clear what sort of functionality they signify. Once you’re into the menu structures behind these icons, you’ll find that the arrangement of them is illogical and confusing in places, so you might well struggle to find and operate minor functions.

Various trim levels are offered in the Terramar line-up, but their availability depends on which of the various powertrain options you choose. The more modest versions come in V1 and V2 trims, while the most powerful petrol and plug-in hybrid versions are offered in VZ1 and VZ2 trims.

Even though it’s the base-level car, the V1 car is still generously equipped, with alloy wheels, LED exterior lighting, heated- and electrically folding door mirrors, front- and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, automatic lights and wipers, keyless entry and start, a powered tailgate, three-zone climate control, a heated leather steering wheel, ambient interior lighting, bucket seats and adaptive cruise control.

V2 adds a head-up display and 360-degree cameras, as well as electrically adjustable and heated front seats, wrapped in Alcantara-effect upholstery.

The VZ trims are a fraction more generous level-for-level. VZ1 cars get the heated and powered front seats in faux-Alcantara, the dynamic chassis control adaptive suspension (or DCC for short), and high-definition HD Matrix headlights. VZ2, meanwhile, adds leather upholstery, the 360-degree cameras, and the head-up display.

Early examples of the Terramar were also available in a couple of special-edition trims. The VZ First Edition trim takes the VZ2’s kit list and adds metallic paint, copper-coloured wheels, a panoramic glass roof, and an upgraded Sennheiser sound system. The America's Cup Edition, meanwhile, has special leather upholstery and cool matte grey paint.

Cupra Terramar running costs

List prices for the Terramar begin at around £39,000 for the 148bhp mild hybrid in V1 trim, and rise to around £51,000 for the VZ2 with the 261bhp 2.0-litre engine.

Cupra usually enjoys fairly strong resale values, so you should get reasonable protection for your investment if you buy brand new. If you’re looking to buy used, though, it means that the prices of pre-owned examples might drop more slowly.

Official WLTP fuel consumption figures for the 261bhp 2.0-litre petrol version stand at between 32.1 mpg and 33.6 mpg on the combined cycle, which is pretty juicy, even by the standards of a sporty SUV. Things get a bit better with the 148bhp 1.5-litre mild hybrid, with official figures sitting between 42.8 mpg and 46.3 mpg.

Those same official figures state that the 268bhp PHEV version will be able to provide you with a fuel return of between 565 mpg and 704 mpg. Don’t believe that for a minute, though, because the official tests are always unrealistically flattering to plug-in hybrids, and the chances of getting anywhere near that in the real world are very slim.

The reality is that if you keep your car charged up and only ever use the all-electric range of 70 miles to get around, then you’ll never use a drop of fuel. But, if you drive in such patterns, you might as well have an electric car, because you won’t need the petrol engine as backup. If you buy a PHEV, then, the chances are that you do need that backup.

As soon as the petrol engine kicks into life, the car starts consuming fuel and quite a lot of it. Rely on the petrol motor regularly, and your fuel bills could quickly get quite pricey.

Cupra Terramar reliability

In the brand standings of the latest What Car? Reliability survey, Cupra placed 13th out of 30 car makers considered. That's very fair-to-middling, but it was the best placing of any of the Volkswagen-owned brands. The Terramar is way too new to have been able to contribute to this result, but it does at least give you some idea of the general trends of Cupra’s reliability record.

That should give you reasonable confidence, but what’ll give you more confidence is the five-year, 90,000-mile warranty package that Cupra introduced across its entire range in April 2024. That’s way more generous than any other brand in the Volkswagen Group, which have the three-year, 60,000-mile cover that Cupra models got previously.