Cupra Australia appears to be a step closer to bringing its first wagon model Down Under, with the brand’s local director cheekily hinting at the Leon Sportstourer in the company’s first birthday media release.
Ben Wilks, director for Cupra Australia, says the Spanish performance upstart’s line-up will ‘continue to evolve’ beyond the current offering – i.e. Leon hatch, Formentor, Ateca and Born – with ‘hard thought’ being given to the Leon Sportstourer wagon available overseas.
“The obvious Sportstourer variant, given Cupra customers’ preference for the quickest and the best-equipped, is the 228kW all-wheel-drive range topper,” Mr Wilks said.
“There are other versions that suggest themselves. We’ll see …”
Overseas model shown
Mr Wilks’ comments follow confirmation from Cupra’s local product lead, Jeff Shafer, that the company’s Australian division was looking into bringing the wagon-bodied Leon back in April.
“Look, I love the Sportstourer,” Mr Shafer told CarExpert at the launch of the all-electric Cupra Born, “it’s something we’d love to have, and it’s under consideration [for our market]. We’re definitely having a hard look at it.”
“It was important for us to establish the foundation with the core models last year (Formentor, Leon and Ateca), but Sportstourer is certainly an interesting product,” Mr Shafer continued, “I think we’d be fairly focused when bringing the Sportstourer, probably at the higher end of the range.”
“So the top grade (228kW 2.0 TSI 4Drive) which is a little bit different to the hatchback with its all-wheel drive, and the (180kW e-Hybrid) plug-in hybrid is also interesting.”
Overseas model shown
It’s worth noting the Leon Sportstourer is already sold across the Tasman, with New Zealand customers offered the choice of 110kW 1.5 TSI and 228kW 2.0 TSI 4Drive versions.
The UK market (also right-hand drive) offers a range of variants including the above plus a 140kW/320Nm 2.0 TSI FWD 180kW/380Nm 2.0 TSI FWD, and 221kW/400Nm 2.0 TSI FWD.
The Leon Sportstourer ‘VZx’ runs the same 228kW/400Nm 2.0-litre EA888 turbocharged petrol engine as the Audi S3 and Cupra Formentor VZx, which is a slightly detuned version of the 235kW/420Nm unit used in the VW Golf R Wagon – which is on the chopping block for Australia.
In flagship guise, the Cupra Leon Sportstourer can dash from 0-100km/h in 4.9 seconds, on its way to a quoted top speed of 250km/h.
Compared to the hatchback, the Sportstourer wagon is 300mm longer in overall length and boasts a healthy 620-1541L boot (UK-spec 2.0 TSI 4Drive) – compared to the Leon Hatch’s 380L (V, VZ, VZx).
Mainstream-branded station wagons are becoming rarer and rarer these days, with only a handful of manufacturers still offering the body type.
With Volkswagen Australia killing its Golf and Passat wagons at the end of 2023, as well as the Arteon Shooting Brake, estate lovers will need to shop in the VW Group’s other showrooms – namely Audi, Skoda and potentially soon, Cupra.
“If the Sportstourer’s case is made, it would precede a game changing range of wholly new CUPRA models including electrified SUVs Tavascan and Terramar,” Cupra Australia says in its media release, suggesting the Sportstourer would head Down Under sooner rather than later if the business case can be made, perhaps sometime in 2024.
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