The popular Formentor will soon gain a mid-life refresh
The Formentor is Cupra’s best-selling car and the Spanish brand is clearly keen to keep it fresh with a new facelift on the way. We’ve spotted the revised compact SUV out testing on the road again and learned a little bit more about what the facelifted Cupra Formentor will have in store.
Arriving in late 2020, the Formentor is a sporty coupe-SUV that sits on the same MQB evo platform as the SEAT Leon and Volkswagen Golf. A whopping 63.8 per cent of Cupra sales were down to the Formentor in 2022 with Cupra as a brand steadily closing the sales gap to SEAT.
To help maintain this newfound momentum, we can see that the Formentor will gain plenty of exterior tweaks to keep it looking fresh and we expect to find some changes to the cabin too.
These latest spy shots were taken at the Nurburgring, where we’ve also spotted Cupra’s Leon Estate testing recently. The all-electric Born is another Cupra in the midst of receiving a mid-life refresh with all three adopting similar font end changes to bring them in line with the Tavascan, Terramar and Urban Rebel concept’s design.
At the front there’s a completely new grille with a horizontal shape and new LED headlight cluster that mimics the new Tavascan SUV with three individual lights. The lower front bumper will also be revised with new air intakes.
The side of the car is undisguised, showing no changes. We could potentially see the Formentor given some new alloy wheel choices, however, along with some new trim colours. The rear on previous test cars has been on show as well but this prototype has been given camouflage to hide a new rear diffuser and side air vents.
The overall layout of the interior shouldn’t change too much. A 12-inch central touchscreen should still be available on every Formentor model as is wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity. We hope to see the touch-sensitive climate control slider become backlit to make it easier to use at night. The infotainment itself will gain similar updates seen on the VW Golf last year.
Prices for the current Formentor start from £31,300 for the 148bhp 1.5-litre four-cylinder V1 and we expect a slight increase across the range with the coming facelift. The 306bhp 2.0-litre range-topping model may also get a bump in power to match the 316bhp Golf R Estate, which uses the same engine.
Now read more about the upcoming Cupra Tavascan…
Alastair Crooks
Keyword: New Cupra Formentor facelift spotted testing