Speaking of concepts, last year’s
Formentor will evolve into a road-going model later this year. It has now been
caught on camera by Motor 1 spies while undergoing final testing with the
production body covered in camouflage. Despite the disguise, it’s pretty clear
the high-performance crossover will look pretty much like the concept before
it, which we knew from day one it wouldn’t go through major changes on its way
to the assembly line.
The Formentor’s sharp styling has already
been implemented on a production car as the new SEAT Leon has a similar look,
save for the quad exhausts, plastic body cladding, and the jacked-up
suspension. The Cupra-badged Leon is expected to share the same plug-in hybrid
powertrain with the crossover, specifically a turbocharged 1.4-liter gasoline
engine teamed up with an electric motor. A similar setup should also power the
already confirmed Skoda Octavia RS iV, which has already been confirmed to go
down the PHEV route for its Geneva premiere next month.
SEAT Cupra hasn’t disclosed any details
about the production model, but we’ll remind you the concept had 241 horsepower
channeled to the road through a dual-clutch automatic transmission. The
Formentor unveiled last year came with a “large integrated battery pack” with
enough energy for 50 kilometers in electric mode, based on the WLTP
regime.
If you’re not a fan of electrification,
there are some rumors suggesting Cupra will sell the Formentor with a
conventional powertrain in the same vein as there will be gasoline- and
diesel-only derivatives of the Octavia RS. It should be a similar story with
the Cupra Leon, with an even hotter Cupra Leon R to follow with more than 300
of gasoline-feeding horses and all-wheel drive. Meanwhile, the production-ready
Cupra Formentor is estimated to debut by mid-2020 as the company’s first
standalone model.
