Cupra Formentor vs Honda ZR-V

What's the difference?

I am stuck in two minds on the Formentor VZe, a car which took me by surprise. It's a bit frustrating as a plug-in hybrid. It has a short real-world electric-only range and takes a while to charge. While this isn't unusual for a small PHEV, I wish it were better on this front. As a hybrid crossover, though, it is intriguing - a rare case of an electrified car being seriously fun to drive and proving that hybrids don't just have to be about saving fuel. If only it didn't cost almost as much as a Golf R...

Should you consider the Honda ZR-V if you are looking for a new family SUV? Absolutely, it offers the right blend of practicality, panache and poise to make it a serious consideration over the hot-selling Mazda CX-5.

What might dissuade some buyers is the smaller dimensions, but seriously, the ZR-V is a poster child for ‘making the most of what you got’. There are a few other nit-picky things about the new Honda, but those cons (collectively) aren't a deal-breaker.

Sorry, Civic Type R, the 2023 ZR-V might be the best car Honda Australia has in its line-up right now, and it deserves at least your attention and consideration, even if that doesn’t evolve into your outright commitment.

The Formentor looks great. It’s much more a crossover hatch than it is an SUV, and one of the better looking examples on the market, too.

It’s a surprising take on the Volkswagen Group SUV formula, too, given it could have easily been a re-skinned, or worse, re-badged T-Roc. Instead the Formentor brings a quite unique look and feel to what are otherwise commonly shared parts.

The light profile is distinctive, as are the chunky, almost Porsche-style haunches over the rear wheels. The wheels themselves, despite measuring in at just 18-inches appear enormous on this design, and completing its contemporary visage are the contrast grey crossover highlights over the wheels and a contemporary light-bar running across the rear.

This car brings all the elements it needs to stand out and apart from its peers. It’s striking, cool, and aggressive, and with its signature light profile, it looks all the more menacing at night.

The interior is also interesting. The big bucket seats in the front instantly imbue it with a sporty feel, as does the neat steering wheel with a carbon-look finish and the raised centre console elements shared with the Golf 8.

The mix of manual adjust seats, modern fly-by-wire controls, and digital dash set-up makes the Cupra feel like it’s in an unusual, very European trim level, the kind you don’t usually see in Australia, and while all the individual pieces come from across the VW Group - from Skoda to Audi, the way they’ve been mixed and matched in this car gives the Formentor its own distinctive appeal.

This is helped along by a bespoke set of typefaces and designs for this car’s digital elements, on the multimedia screen and dash display. There’s been attention to detail here in setting the Cupra brand apart, and I appreciate the depth of changes this car has compared to, say, a Golf, or a T-Roc.

Honda is on a bit of a tear in terms of design, at least to my eye.

All models in its line-up look modern, sophisticated and properly upmarket. And yes, that’s counting the Accord mid-size sedan, too.

The ZR-V is certainly no different, and while it does crib more than a few design cues from the likes of the Porsche Macan and Maserati Grecale, for a mainstream mid-size SUV, that’s not necessarily a criticism.

The front end is characterised by tall headlights and a chiselled bonnet, but the component that draws the eye the most is the front grille.

With a trapezoidal shape and vertical slats, at first glance the ZR-V’s toothy grin sort of looks like the aforementioned Grecale, and it's a departure from the face of the Civic (on which it is based).

I’m still not one hundred per cent sold on the front styling of the ZR-V. It doesn’t look too cohesive or consistent with the rest of the Honda Australia line-up (the HR-V and CR-V SUVs have a horizontal-themed grille), but it’s not ugly.

Step to the side and there are shades of Macan thanks to its long bonnet, bulbous bodywork and short overhangs.

I like the top-spec VTi LX’s body-coloured wheel arches, too, invoking a little BMW vibe to make the ZR-V feel a touch more upmarket.

However, the rear is my favourite element of the ZR-V, thanks to a funky tail-light design, nicely-sized spoiler and a subtle contrasting diffuser with integrated twin exhaust outlets.

Step inside, and those familiar with the new Civic will feel right at home thanks to a honeycomb dashboard insert that hides the air vents, floating multimedia touchscreen and perfectly girthed steering wheel.

Everything about the cabin is laid out in a clear and sensible manner, but the soft-touch materials and contrast stitching throughout just elevate it from something you might expect from Honda.

And build quality in the ZR-V is excellent. Everything feels so solid and well put together, with nary a sign of squeak or rattle.

Is it the best-looking mainstream family SUV out there? It certainly comes close, but to my eye, Mazda’s CX-5 just edges it out due to a more consistent overall design. 

The design sells a car which is more individualistic than some of its rivals or relations, and this certainly felt true in my week with this Cupra. The big front seats, for example, are accommodating and supporting, allowing a sporty, low seating position and a good level of adjustability for the steering column.

The doors have a big bottle holder in them, and there are a further two in the raised centre console element. This area is also enhanced with a small bay thanks to the minimalist fly-by-wire controls, good for holding another phone, wallet, or perhaps keys. There is also an adjustable-height centre armrest covering a small storage box.

The area under the screen hosts dual USB-C ports as well as a wireless charger. Although we’ll call out here there’s no mechanical controls for the climate functions, which like all modern VW Group vehicles, need to be managed through some touch elements below the multimedia screen, or, more frustratingly, through the screen itself.

The screen is interesting, because it’s not one of the crazy high resolution ones which appear in some VW Group products, instead being a faster, lower resolution version, which has the benefit of making the touch elements in CarPlay or some of the sub menus large and easy to jab at while on the move.

The software is mostly good, too, with a handful of fairly self-explanatory menus, with some more advanced features buried about two menus deep, best adjusted while parked. There’s a clever little short-cut bar on the left-hand side of the screen, even when CarPlay is running, which lets you skip right to the main menu, car settings, or climate functions.

The digital dash has a welcome variety of views to play with to suit all kinds of preferences, and some bespoke Cupra ones which look neat, too.

In my week with the car, I had some passengers complain that the rear seats feel very claustrophobic with the massive front seat backs blocking the view out the front of the car, and a combination of black headliner and a large transmission tunnel closing in the space further.

I tend to agree, although I (at 182cm) had sufficient airspace for my knees behind my own driving position as well as sufficient headroom, with the only small annoyance being how low the doorline is. If you’re as tall or taller you’ll need to duck low to get in.

Welcome additions to the second row include a large bottle holder in each of the doors, dual USB-C outlets, and the third climate zone with adjustable vents is a real win.

Boot space is 345 litres. Sounds middling for the small SUV segment, and down on the 420 litres offered in the purely combustion variants, but I was pleased to find it could accept the entire CarsGuide luggage set with minimal disruption to the view out the rear window. I did have to remove the luggage cover, however.

There is no under floor storage with a small cutaway for the tyre repair kit, so you will need to store your charging cables in the boot.

Measuring 4568mm long, 1840mm wide, 1620mm tall and with a 2655mm wheelbase, the ZR-V is one of the smallest mid-size SUVs in Australia.

But don’t let the figures fool you, as this pint-sized family hauler has a few tricks up its sleeve.

From the front row, there is ample room to get comfortable, while storage options extend to door pockets, a glove box, a generous wireless smartphone charging pad, two cupholders and a handy storage shelf under the shifter.

However, the front seats found in the VTi LX grade of ZR-V feel insufficiently bolstered and flat, at least to my back and bottom.

I found myself sinking and sliding around in the seat more than I would have liked in my time with the car, so this could be an area of concern for slimmer people like myself.

In the second row, there is sufficient space behind the driver’s seat, set for my 183cm frame, while map pockets and a fold-down armrest also come into play alongside the door’s bottle holder.

Worth noting, however, that while there's plenty of space to fit a forward-facing kids car seat and a front passenger, the door trims are a little chunky and leave little room for my toddler to slide in and out of said safety seat.

Open the boot and you will find enough room for 370 litres of volume, which can expand to 1302L with the rear seats stowed.

Although this isn’t close to class-leading (even the CX-5 manages a 438L/1340L rating), the flat floor and easy-to-remove cargo blind make it a breeze to throw a pram, shopping or any sort of gear into.

I think boot space is one of those stats that will always sound good on paper, but how you use that space in reality is a better indicator of practicality, and in this regard, I was never wanting for more space in my week with the car.

Honda’s 2023 ZR-V line-up can be had from as little as $40,200 drive-away for the base VTi X, while the top-spec e:HEV LX hybrid will set buyers back $54,900.

What we have is the highest grade available exclusive with petrol power, the VTi LX, priced at $48,500.

And for this sort of spend, you can expect a long list of equipment, similar to the fit-out you would usually see on luxury models wearing a German badge.

There’s a leather interior, heated and power-operated front seats, a heated steering wheel, heated rear seats, dual-zone climate control, a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster, rear privacy glass, LED exterior lighting, a wireless smartphone charger and two-tone 18-inch alloy wheels.

Handling multimedia is a 9.0-inch touchscreen with Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay support, as well as in-built satellite navigation and digital radio.

Now, some might look at the ZR-V VTI LX’s near $50,000 price tag and think ‘Well, that’s just too expensive for a Honda’. But keep in mind that’s the drive-away price.

A similarly-priced Mazda CX-5 for example, the $44,300 before on-road costs Touring, misses out on features like rear heated seats and a powered tailgate, but also has a larger engine and all-wheel drive traction.

As for the Toyota RAV4, the equivalent variant would be the one-from-the-bottom $43,310 GXL that has a cloth interior, manually adjustable seats and an 8.0-inch multimedia screen.

All things considered, the ZR-V VTi-LX offers plenty of bang for buck for a family buyer, with enough of the modern conveniences that means you won’t be feeling the FOMO for many years to come.

The Formentor VZe pairs a 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine producing 110kW/250Nm with an electric motor producing 85kW/300Nm. The two can combine using a boost function, for a maximum combined output of 180kW/400Nm.

The front wheels are driven via a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, and the electric motor is seated between the transmission and engine.

A 12.8kWh battery pack allows a theoretical purely electric driving range of 58km, although I was seeing more like 40 at best in the real world, with the adjustable regen set to the higher of two available settings.

Powering the ZR-V VTi LX is a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine, the same one available across the model line barring the top-spec e:HEV hybrid.

The engine produces 131kW/240Nm, which isn’t all that much compared to larger engine rivals in the same segment.

Paired to the engine is a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that drives the front wheels.

And while a mid-size family SUV is never about outright power, and Honda’s powertrain options aren’t exactly plentiful at the moment, know that you aren’t getting the spiciest SUV with the ZR-V.

As with most plug-in hybrids, the Formentor VZe has a very good-looking claimed fuel consumption of 1.9L/100km, although this assumes you’ll religiously charge it up. In my week with the car I saw 5.5/100km, with the caveat that I was mostly driving it in the hybrid mode as I was far from places I could charge it up.

Thankfully, the hybrid driving mode is very good, but one of the most annoying things about this car is how long it takes to charge.

The Formentor VZe’s AC inverter offers a maximum rate of just 3.6kW, and from the base level my car informed me it would take almost four hours to charge from a public charger.

Again, like many plug-in hybrids, this car is really only suitable for those able to charge in their home garage. It takes too long to charge this car on a public outlet to make the most out of its electric features.

It also requires mid-shelf 95 RON unleaded fuel for its small turbocharged engine.

Officially, the ZR-V VTi LX returns a combined cycle fuel economy figure of 7.4 litres per 100km, but in my week with the car I managed 9.8L/100km.

This figure is much closer to the city consumption number of 9.3L/100km and, given I only drove the car in Melbourne’s inner city, that explains why.

The ZR-V VTi LX needs just 91RON petrol at the bowser, helping to keep refill costs down.

The Formentor VZe might be the best plug-in hybrid I’ve driven, certainly at this end of the market. It does something so few hybrids in this class try to, or are even capable of. It’s a lot of fun.

The Formentor manages to pack all the entertaining drive characteristics of something like a Golf GTI into a car which can be driven fully electrically.

It’s a thing of brilliance. The car feels agile, responsive, and lightweight, with some magic at work to hide the weight of its nearly 13kWh of batteries under the floor.

It also blends the instantaneous response of the electric motor in quite nicely with the surge of the 1.4-litre turbocharged engine, the two complementing each other with some grace. On a rare occasion, there is a slight delay between the electric motor waning off and the torque of the combustion engine meeting it, but these instances are few and far between.

With a healthy amount of torque available instantly, it also does away with the need to worry about the occasionally fiddly dual-clutch automatic transmission. 

As to going fast in a straight line, the VZe is capable of combining its two power sources to very easily overwhelm the front wheels. It has a 0-100km/h sprint time of 7.0 seconds, although feels as though it could best this, traction allowing. A peak of 400Nm is an incredible amount of torque for such a small two-wheel drive vehicle, after all.

The electric driving is of course smooth and easy to work with, although the regeneration, even on its highest of two available settings, can be quite mild. When set to hybrid mode, it drives more or less like a Toyota hybrid, limiting the amount of electrical assistance available on the accelerator pedal.

This is good, because some PHEVs will simply drain the electric system first, with the engine only turning on with a solid press of the accelerator, but the Formentor’s combined accelerator approach means you can drive in stop start traffic for nearly 200km before it manages to drain the battery (trust me, I tested it).

It exudes sportiness from behind the wheel, too, with a low-set driving position, neat customisable dash settings which offer plenty of information, and a sporty, thin wheel which offers direct feedback unsurprisingly similar to that of a car like the Golf R.

While it might not be the most competent electric vehicle, then, nor as brilliant as something like a Golf R, it’s an excellent hybrid offering unprecedented levels of driver engagement for a car with this kind of technology. I liked driving it a lot.

For a mid-sized family SUV, the ZR-V proves surprisingly fun and engaging behind the wheel.

A large part of this is due to the fact that the steering feel is just so good.

With enough weight and feedback coming from the tiller, it makes it an absolute delight to thread the ZR-V through traffic, around a roundabout or even a twisty road.

Some mainstream SUVs have opted for overly light steering feel, which ends up straying too close to unnatural. But the ZR-V, at least in this VTi LX form, nails it.

Backing up the steering is a comfortable ride, which is another pleasant surprise in the ZR-V.

The 18-inch wheels fitted are shod with thick 225/55 tyres, meaning there is plenty of sidewall to help soak up the bumps and ruts of Melbourne’s roads.

Don’t get me wrong, we're not talking premium levels of isolation here, but the plush ride is a welcome in a mainstream SUV.

Aiding this feeling of serenity is the 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine and CVT that is as smooth as they come.

I’ve never really warmed to CVTs in the past, but the ZR-V has a great one, ‘shifting’ smartly to avoid excessive drone, while the engine delivers enough kick to move things along briskly.

And, in a way turning a negative into a positive, the smaller dimensions of the ZR-V mean it doesn’t feel that big on the road, which makes car parks that much easier to navigate despite also offering enough practicality for a small family and some gear. 

Honda’s new ZR-V is yet to be crash tested by ANCAP or Euro NCAP and does not have an independent safety rating.

However, standard safety equipment includes forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and lane keep assist as part of Honda’s 'Sensing Suite'.

The VTi LX adds rear cross-traffic alert and a surround-view monitor to the equipment list.

Rear cross-traffic alert should really be standard across the range and not just on the top-spec model. Its absence is a bit of a disappointment.

In my time with the car, I also found the automatic high beams to be overly aggressive. They were slow to turn off around other cars, leading to a more than a few flashes from oncoming traffic. I ended up just switching the auto high beams off.

Cupra shares the same five-year and unlimited kilometre warranty as its VW parent, and at the time of writing, includes three years of scheduled servicing for free.

The brand has not settled on how much its servicing plans will cost after that period (again, at the time of writing). While VW Group’s five-year service plans aren’t usually outrageous, proceed with caution.

The Formentor VZe needs to visit the workshop once every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.

Like all new Hondas sold in Australia, the ZR-V comes with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, matching the period offered by many mainstream brands like Ford, Hyundai, Mazda and Toyota.

And while this falls short of Kia’s seven-year warranty and Mitsubishi’s (conditional) 10-year period, the ZR-V’s servicing costs are among some of the lowest in the segment.

For the first five years or five services, each is just $199, with scheduled maintenance every 12 months or 10,000km.