27-04-2025
Cupra Terramar: Glimpse of What's to Come from U.S.-Bound Spanish Brand
It's appropriate that Cupra christened its small SUV the Terramar, because we traveled over both terra and mar—that's "land" and "sea" for you non-Spanish speakers—to drive the brand's newest entry. We flew down to Florida to sample the solely gas-powered Terramar VZ in Miami; and we crossed the Atlantic to get behind the wheel of the gas-electric Terramar VZ plug-in hybrid (PHEV), in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Why take such measures to drive a vehicle from a brand without any footprint in the United States? Because Cupra plans to enter the United States before the end of the decade.
Cupra—a portmanteau of the words "cup" and "racing"—started out as a performance subbrand of Spain's Seat (SAY-aht), but it became its own marque for 2018. And every year since, Cupra has achieved year-over-year sales growth, making it the darling of the Volkswagen Group.
Now, Cupra is planning to expand into the U.S. market, where the brand will be positioned as a sporty offering between Volkswagen and Audi. Two vehicles will initially come to our shores: a next-gen version of the battery-electric Formentor subcompact SUV (one of the seven vehicles in the Cupra model line), and a North American-built mid-size SUV. The Terramar isn't on that list, but now-former CEO Wayne Griffiths (he recently stepped down) had told us the model best exemplifies "where we are, where we are going, and where we want to go in the future."
While Cupra offers the Terramar with more mundane gas and hybrid powertrains with output ranging from 148 to 201 horsepower, we drove the most performance-oriented variants, which bear the VZ moniker. It's short for veloz, Spanish for "fast."
The gas-only Terramar VZ is powered by a 261-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine teamed with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and all-wheel drive. In PHEV guise, the Terramar VZ relies on a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine and an electric motor to produce 268 horsepower. The gas-electric version uses a six-speed dual-clutch automatic and drives the front wheels.
Though the 2.0T has fewer ponies in its stable than the PHEV, it more than makes up for the deficiency by hitting the scales a claimed 340 pounds lighter than the plug-in. With less mass to move, the VZ 2.0T is said to reach 62 mph in 5.9 seconds, undercutting the PHEV by 1.4 ticks.
The Terramar VZ PHEV's 7.3-second run to 62 mph may seem at odds with its VZ nomenclature, but at city speeds, it feels sufficiently rápido. Credit the electric motor's 243 pound-feet of torque, a figure that swells to 295 pound-feet when the gas engine joins in, a number equal to that of the 2.0T. With a 20-kWh battery pack, the plug-in hybrid also is good for around 75 miles of battery-electric driving per the notoriously optimistic WLTP cycle.
Get much beyond urban speeds—such as when merging onto the freeway or executing a pass—can be a white-knuckle affair when in EV mode, however. Rather than immediately fire up the turbo four in response to the accelerator kissing the firewall, the Terramar PHEV takes a few beats while it stubbornly motors ahead using just the 114-hp electric motor before it finally tags in the 174-hp gas engine. By contrast, the turbo 2.0-liter suffers from no such suspense. Pin the right pedal, and the gearbox downshifts with immediacy, sending the Terramar VZ surging ahead.
That division carries over into the siblings' driving dynamics as well. The PHEV feels wholly disconnected, owing to its mushy, long-travel brake pedal and numb steering with artificial-seeming weighting. Meanwhile, the 2.0T's left pedal is firm, if somewhat grabby at initial application, and its steering is more normally weighted, though still devoid of feedback.
In fairness, the Michelin Pilot Alpin winter tires on the PHEV we drove in Wolfsburg lacked the grip of the Continental SportContact 6 summer rubber on the 2.0T we drove in Miami, which may have exacerbated difference between the two. The 2.0T still falls short of offering a truly engaging driving experience, but it takes to curvier roads with a competence and cohesion wholly missing from the PHEV.
Either Terramar VZ absorbs impacts with a firm but forgiving quality with its adaptive dampers in their softest setting. Switching to their stiffest mode all but strips away any compliance. That said, the Michelin-equipped PHEV felt far less busy in this setting than that of the 2.0T with its stickier rubber, which also let more road noise and tire slap into the passenger compartment.
Save for its charge-port door and a slightly smaller cargo hold due to the packaging of the battery, the VZ PHEV is essentially identical to the 2.0T from an exterior and interior design perspective. Both share the same massive maw, canted headlights, triangle lighting motif, raked windshield, and arcing roofline, all of which give the Terramar a rather striking look. The interior takes a similar tack with its driver-oriented dashboard, tasteful bronze-accent trim, and quality materials. The Terrarmar cabin shares only a handful of parts with lesser Volkswagen models, most obviously the 12.9-inch touchscreen infotainment system's operating system and base-mounted touch-capacitive temperature and volume controls.
Built alongside the Audi Q3 in Győr, Hungary, the Terramar rides on a 105.6-inch wheelbase, and space for rear passengers is limited. Even so, there's enough room for a six-footer to sit directly behind an equally tall driver.
If the Terramar VZ PHEV is an indicator of where Cupra is heading, then the brand may want to look into forging a new path. The Terramar VZ 2.0T, however, provides a blueprint that Cupra would be wise to follow and improve on over time. Its chic style and dynamic competence help spice up this meat-and-potatoes offering. That spice is relatively mild, though, and if Cupra really wants to assert itself as a performance brand, then it's going to need to turn up the heat up to at least medium in the vehicles it plans on selling in the U.S.
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