2023 Cupra Leon vs 2022 Kia Cerato

What's the difference?

Behold the beautiful Cupra Leon VZe.

Like its name and multimedia screen, this enigmatic hatchback needs some decoding to make sense to Australians.

Essentially, the Leon VZe is a variation of today's eighth-generation Volkswagen Golf. Except it's built in Spain by VW Group subsidiary SEAT (remember them?), offering sleeker styling, and – in VZe guise – a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) powertrain.

In other words, this is similar to the intriguing Golf GTE grade not offered in Australia, but with more than a splash of Balenciaga about the way it looks, feels and drives – and with pricing to match (from $59,990, before on-road costs).

So, does the Leon VZe combine the sportiness of a hot hatch and torquey zing of an EV with the parsimony of a hybrid? Could this be the most complete small car on sale in Australia today?

Let's spill the tea to find out.

Three years after the fourth-generation Cerato small car rolled into Australian dealerships, Kia launched a mid-life facelift for the sedan and hatch range in mid-2021.

It ushered in styling tweaks including new headlights and Kia’s new logo, as well as more safety tech and a multimedia upgrade.

At the top of the range sits the warmed-up Cerato GT. It’s not quite Hyundai i30 N-level performance, more i30 N-Line. In other words, more than enough performance to keep most people satisfied and enough poke to get away quickly at the lights.

But is the updated version of Kia’s Cerato trying to be something it’s not, or is it a performance bargain?

Read on to find out.