• Petrol only means no long-range diesel efficiency
• 1.5-litre front-wheel drive models are most efficient
• 2.0-litre all-wheel drive variants can be thirsty

What are the running costs?

The least expensive Terramar to buy is also a great choice if you’re looking for competitive running costs. The entry-level 1.5-litre eTSI variant not only has mild-hybrid technology to help reduce fuel consumption, it also drives only the front wheels, which improves efficiency.

Official combined fuel consumption is as good as 46.3mpg according to the WLTP figures, with CO2 emissions at 140g/km or less; you’re unlikely to match this in the real world, but 35-40mpg should be possible with only a little care.

The 2.0-litre TSI models, which all feature 4Drive all-wheel drive, will be much less economical. The official figures go no higher than 37.7mpg while CO2 peaks at 172g/km. The 265hp version we’ve been testing is more of a 28mpg car in our experience – although this will improve on a relaxed motorway run it will also plummet whenever you indulge in the available performance.

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The 1.5-litre e-Hybrids are plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and promise the greatest fuel efficiency of all – but that the WLTP figures range from 565 to 706mpg (and 10-11g/km CO2) tells you how laughably skewed this official testing procedure becomes as soon as you introduce enough on-board battery power to travel a claimed 76 miles at a time. In the real world we’ve found that’s a still impressive 50+ miles, easily.

If most of your journeys are shorter than that figure and you’re able to charge the 25.6kWh battery pack at home, these Terramars will be tremendously low cost and efficient to run. In more mixed use, including motorway miles with a full battery, we’ve seen mid-50s easily driving quite briskly over 129 miles when starting with a fully charged battery; when the battery is depleted this will drop into the 40s, but this is still better than many PHEVs out there.

Fully charging the battery pack takes 2.5 hours on an 11kW AC charger – embarrassingly for Cupra, we’re told it doesn’t have timing for 7kW AC, which is much more common for home charging in the UK. DC charging at 50kW is also available, if you’re prepared to pay the price for public charging, and this will do 10-80% in 26 minutes.

Servicing and warranty

The official line from Cupra as that the Terramar should be serviced every year or 10,000 miles – whichever comes sooner. It does, however, have a variable service indicator system as well, so will also alert you if and when further attention is required. The kind of driving you do may impact this.

The Terramar’s warranty cover is for five years or 90,000 miles – whichever is sooner. That’s a generous amount of time (compared with rival brands that offer three years) but a lower-than-average mileage limit, as many others offer 100,000 miles of coverage.

Official Cupra extended warranty and Cupra service plan options are available at extra cost.

Reliability

• Little data to go on yet
• But platform-sharing cars haven’t been faultless
• Leave a Parkers owner review

The Terramar is a new model line at the time of writing (March 2025) so there isn’t much specific reliability data to go on. However, the VW Group cars it shares components with, including the Mk3 VW Tiguan and second-generation Skoda Kodiaq, have been suffering issues with their electric systems and safety equipment since new.

Own one already? Why not leave a Parkers owner review to help other potential Terramar buyers.