New Cupra Formentor gets an angry facelift for 2024

• New front end design
• Up to 328bhp
• New interior tech

If you prefer your SUVs stylish and sporty, you might like the look of the new Cupra Formentor. The family SUV has been facelifted for 2024, getting a new design with a ‘shark-nose’ front end and a tweaked cabin with the brand’s latest technology. It’ll arrive in the UK in the second half of this year, with prices expecting to start from under £35,000.

If you're not familiar with Cupra, it's a young spin-off brand of SEAT that emerged in 2018 as a more upmarket, performance-focused alternative, and the Formentor is its best-selling model. It provides the SUV practicality that family buyers need, while delivering a fun and engaging driving experience – a combination that earned it the title of Best Performance SUV in our 2024 Carbuyer Best Car Awards.

What’s new for the 2024 Cupra Formentor?

The main area of focus for this facelift is the styling. The new Formentor will be the first of Cupra's cars to sport its new design language, complete with a ‘shark-nose’ front end. It’s a similar look to the facelifted Cupra Leon – the hatchback upon which the Formentor is based – with a pair of angular LED matrix headlights and a triangular theme for the bumper.

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The geometric motif continues with the tail-lights, which have three distinct triangular lighting elements. The lightbar between them remains, although the Cupra emblem now illuminates. There are new 18 and 19-inch alloy wheels designs to choose from, along with eight paint colours.

The architecture of the interior is carried over from the outgoing car, but a new 12.9-inch infotainment screen takes the place of the old 12-inch unit. The screen sits above two touch-sensitive sliders for volume and heating control. During our testing of the outgoing Formentor, we found these controls could be fiddly to use, although Cupra has added backlighting to them for improved usability at night.

Other changes of note include a range of new materials for the dashboard and seats, as well as an optional 12-speaker sound system.

What engines are available for the 2024 Cupra Formentor?

Much like its Cupra Leon sibling, the Formentor will be available with petrol, mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains. A 1.5-litre petrol engine serves as the entry-point, delivering 148bhp to the front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox.

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A 2.0-litre petrol engine is also available, bumping power up to 201bhp and swapping the manual gearbox for a seven-speed DSG automatic. Four-wheel drive is also fitted to this model.

For the most performance, buyers will want to opt for one of the two petrol Formentor VZ models. The first uses a 2.0-litre engine with 261bhp and front-wheel drive, while the second puts out a substantial 328bhp to all four wheels. Both use a seven-speed DSG automatic gearbox, while the latter gets a clever ‘torque splitter’, designed to improve traction when cornering.

The mild hybrid model uses the 1.5-litre petrol engine and a small electric motor. Power remains the same at 148bhp, although Cupra claims that the system allows for efficiency gains over the entry-level 1.5-litre petrol engine.

The eHybrid plug-in hybrid models take electrification a step further. Available in either 201bhp or 268bhp trims, the Formentor eHybrid uses the 1.5-litre petrol engine and a more substantial 19.7kWh battery, big enough to allow an electric driving range of over 62 miles. There’s 50kW DC fast-charging and 11kW AC home charging compatibility for when the battery runs low.

How much does the 2024 Cupra Formentor cost and when can I buy one?

Official UK pricing is still under wraps, but we expect the new Cupra Formentor to cost marginally more than the outgoing model, which started around £32,500. It will launch in late summer 2024, with a specific release date to be confirmed closer to the time.

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