Spanish performance upstart Cupra is celebrating two years in the Australian market this month, coinciding with the delivery of its 1000th plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Down Under. The Volkswagen Group subsidiary has been one of the front-runners in the PHEV space, beating out its fellow Group brands to bring plug-ins to the Australian market and punching above its weight in the PHEV sales charts. Cupra Australia director Ben Wilks says that PHEVs account for one third of the brand’s local sales so far in 2024, which is a 300 per cent increase on last year.
Further, for the first half of 2024 the Cupra Formentor VZe PHEV returned 313 registrations – equivalent to 51.7 per cent of total Formentor deliveries and placing sixth overall in PHEV sales standings according to VFACTS data . The smaller Leon VZe PHEV hatchback lodged 53 registrations to the end of June, accounting for 32.
3 per cent of overall Leon sales. For context, Cupra sold 545 PHEVs in total during the entire 2023 calendar year. Mr Wilks said that while Cupra’s PHEV models didn’t come into full supply until well into 2023, the brand has seen an “exceptional spike in interest” in its plug-in hybrid products.
“The convenience of dual forms of drive capability aside, plug-in hybrids benefit from significant government incentives. This means that a fully equipped Formentor VZe Tribe Edition can cost less on novated lease than the entry Formentor V,” Mr Wilks added. Cupra Australia recently announced a run of 3.