Cupra Formentor e-Hybrid real world MPG

The 2021 Cupra Formentor e-Hybrid has a WLTP of over 200 mpg but can we get this or maybe even better. Join me as I explore Sussex in the new Cupra Formentor e-Hybrid and tell you everything you need to know about this car and the real world MPG of the new Cupra Formentor PHEV.
What happens if you dont charge your phev - Cupra Formentor e-hybrid • What happens if you do...
Damo Drives
Subscribe: www.youtube.co...
Instagram: / damodrives
FaceBook: / damodrives
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/damodrives
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DamoDrives

[@SpencerDenham-vl6ce]

Just bought one and picked it up today...really lovely car and so comfortable to drive. Driving to Newcastle next week so would be interested to know where you would have the 'battery line' set for those longer drives?

[@roberttaylor3652]

Great video, just what I've been looking for - Real World Performance

[@DamoDrives]

Glad you enjoyed it, I try and do things we would actually do in a car . Just editing something from similar with the new Cupra Born

[@marekcizmar1195]

I am thinking about this car as my work car for deliverie, i do around 150 miles a day around town, would it do 50 mpg on this sort of driving around town? Whats your guess? 👀

[@konstantinosmandis8904]

Nice real world video. I have one question though. When you are driving with 50 or 60 mph in hybrid mode with acc does it use the petrol engine or both of them?

[@tsolmonkhuumunkhjargal8709]

Great review thank you👍 How about stereo speakers? Is it beats sound system or just standard stereo. How its sound like anyway?

[@DamoDrives]

Really pleased you enjoyed the video. I think it was standard but to be honest I did not turn it on 😂

[@simonrussell6372]

Really good video Damo. Concise and very informative. Thank you. 👍🏻

[@DamoDrives]

Really glad you enjoyed it 😊

[@pmac6062]

Nice video and interesting mpg. However with all the petrol, diesel, electric and hybrid cars out there now it would be more interesting to know what the pence per mile works out at

[@DamoDrives]

Will have to try that for my next video , thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed it

[@ronniebrown6225]

Part of the reason the mileage was poor was that you did a stop-start run with lots of slow town traffic. Also, a top Honda mechanic once told me to get a true reading of your mpg you should reset it each time you get in the car otherwise you are just trotting up all the time which does not give a true reading. An example of this is when I visit my sister she lives 100 miles from me. I drive a 2017 2 litre diesel Ford Focus Titanium X with 18 inch wheels, If I do the return journey and only reset at the very beginning my average mpg on arrival at my sister's ( no stops for coffee) will be around 62mpg but when I get home again it will have dropped to around 50 mpg. resetting before leaving my sister's I will again be around 62mpg all the way home. The Formentor is a beautiful car and I would choose the 1.4 hybrid vz2 with 245BHP which Cupra claim can do the equivalent of 176mpg

[@DamoDrives]

It was a real world test in less than ideal conditions but I feel is reflective of every day driving. I reset the long term trip at the start of the day so the numbers I was going through so it is a true reading of the day. I agree if I had of not reset the long term it would not have been correct. Hope that answers your concerns 😊

[@ronniebrown6225]

@@DamoDrives itsnot a concern but if not reset each time you start a car you will never get the truest mileage

[@nwithyman]

@@ronniebrown6225 - there speaks a true convert! The fact is that manufacturers, all of them, try to dupe the customer with unobtainable mpg figures (plus other lies, are you listening VW/Audi group?). Btw, it's nuclear, not nucular - a good review though, thanks.

[@ronniebrown6225]

@@nwithyman I used to own a 2015 Honda Civic 1.6 turbo diesel which Honda claimed would return 74.3 ( or thereabouts) mpg on the run to my sister's house I regularly got 83.6 mpg and that was with cruise control at 65mph

[@my_carp_life3424]

Does it not recharge the battery while driving , like when you use the brakes or let your foot of the pedal and coast?

[@DamoDrives]

It will have regen

[@acptelford1307]

@@DamoDrivesAnd puts the brake lights on every time!

[@kapiteinscheenbeen1886]

Is it still cheaper to get a hybrid since the elektric bill is so high?

[@DamoDrives]

Depending on your circumstances really, if you can home charge and don’t drive long distances on a regular basis an EV is ok but for me and I’m sure a massive number of people they need public charging and a lot of public charges are .40-90p per kw (when you have a 74 kw x .90p that does 250 miles) you don’t really save alot. I’m really not convinced the UK is ready yet

[@kapiteinscheenbeen1886]

@@DamoDrives Makes sense. I can home charge so that's no problem. I daily drive about 45km so a hybrid would be just perfect i think. Just not sure if the big price difference is worth it..

[@craigh6775]

Ive just ordered the VZ2 Formentor 310ps , not coming till next year , its the infrastructure for charging these kind of cars that puts me off buying one.

[@DamoDrives]

I completely agree as you need to home charge to make the most of a PHEV or you end up with a car that has average performance and average fuel economy. The wait times for all manufacturers are like this and actually get worse due to the silicon supply issues. It’s also driving up used car prices massively as well

[@SigmaJAD]

Great real world review. Thinking about this car or the Born when available. They both look fantastic and really stand out. Not really sure about the half way house option of a hybrid though. One thing concerning me. The amount of time eyes are off the road due to info system and interface. It looks dangerous, concentrating on navigating a touch screen and not the road. Is voice control good? That has to be the answer. Currently drive a Golf GTI, it has old fashioned buttons and screen combined. Ok last gen but I keep seeing other reviewers commenting that this is still the way to go.

[@DamoDrives]

Really hoping to review the Born when the dealer gets 1 but unless you are a company car driver or do short trips and charge a none-PHEV is the better idea. Really like the idea of the BORN but it’s how to charge the car as there is only 1 charger in the town I live and don’t have a driveway. Button wise I think you would get used to it and will remember where things are and will not need to look anywhere near as much and tbh I do not think you are changing things that often (maybe start of trip to set satNav and choose some music or podCasts) but when you are going I am not sure what you would be changing but I do like a good physical button for some things

[@SigmaJAD]

@@DamoDrives thanks for the feedback. 90% of my driving is short distance. Can I stall a home charger but free at work. Good point, once a lot of settings are established, you don't touch again. My GTI never comes off the individual setup - mostly sport. Thanks again.

[@DamoDrives]

Sounds like the perfect choice for an EV then charge at work all day and hopefully not even use your own electric 😊, if you are going on a longer trip you have to allow for stops to recharge

[@GrrMeister]

13:50 *Auto A/Con Button means a lot to my 2 Dogs interior panting after a heavy workout and cools them off asap - so very happy - Mercedes B200CDi AMG Premium Pack- you know you are worth it !*

[@DamoDrives]

I bet, my dog loves it went I turn it up full. The things we do for our pets well members of the family lol

[@leebailey7888]

At last, a common sense approach. Most videos I’ve seen have criticised the control systems for air conditioning, but as he says, once set, how often are you going to change it? As for the MPG, majority of people I know who have PHEV vehicles are company car drivers who have chosen this type of vehicle for the tax advantage. Do they charge them as often as they should to achieve optimum mpg? No.

[@DamoDrives]

Thanks Lee , appreciate the comments. I try and approach reviews of how I would use the car. No point trying to give advice or information to people buying a car if it’s not helpful

[@laurenceritchie]

How many miles did you cover is those 5 hours of driving?

[@Nick-B78]

Good review however I have a question that no one has talked about in any PHEV video…how does the car/battery perform when stuck in traffic? The reason I ask is that I’ve been test driving a few different PHEVs recently and something I spotted whilst the dealer was sat with us in the car showing us how things worked and that before we went out was that in the 5 mins we were sat there the battery dropped 1%. That doesn’t sound like much but I’m guessing if you stuck in a jam in the winter, your battery is going to take a beating depending on how much the car uses when sat ‘idling’. Anyone have any knowledge of how some cars are doing in that sense?

[@DamoDrives]

God you enjoyed the review, I have reviewed a few PHEVs and they all seemed to do that, certain electronics use the lithium ion battery and others a normal battery, maybe something is running !

[@Nick-B78]

@@DamoDrives well yeah I guess something must be ‘running’ on the main battery

[@xrhstoskarpidas6311]

So im between to choose hybrid the 245 and the 190ps 4x4 and im really confused in hybrid you take extra cause you are in vz mode in 190 due to co2 you have high price when you put extra i reach same price as the hybrid. The real question i have is how many km or miles you can do with the hybrid with full fuel tank and battery combined in hybrid mode?

[@vladmihai306]

i think in the end, the 245 hybrid is better than the 190, even if you don't charge and use it as a non plug in hybrid, simply because you have more hp when you need it and you also have better mpg, even without charging, especially in cities, where the 2.0 tsi 190 would go towards 25-35 mpg where this one would stay at over 40mpg even with empty battery.

[@GillmanStudio]

I guess over 100 miles mostly in crawling traffic isn't going to get the best mpg so no surprises. I have a 245 VZ2 on order and will be school runs and a long drive of around 400 miles once/twice a week mostly on motorways. So I will get to see real company usage figures soon enough. Like you said, the 11% in a car this capable, different and styled was a no brainer.

[@DamoDrives]

That number is correct at certain times as you will have seen. The company car tax thing is amazing really so I hope you enjoy the car 👏👏

[@garyhayward7463]

I’ve also chosen the same 245 VZ2 e-hybrid for my next company car. I still don’t have a confirmed build date yet due to backlog on orders and microchip shortages. Overall the spec looks very good. I’m also a stereo head and hope the Beats sound system has some good power output (and bass). The big thing for me is the tax saving as my 1 series m sport shadow edition has been a fantastic spec and drive, but shocking on the tax side! Fingers crossed it’s the right decision.

[@DamoDrives]

They are really good cars and the main thing is to charge it to get the best mpg. You can be clever with performance by setting the battery to keep 20% and use it like a KERS system as found in F1 so you always have electric power to get you off the line of extra boost when accelerating (although this does effect the mpg) in the middle of editing another video running the car with 0 battery and the effect this has

[@69svejk]

@@garyhayward7463 I think you can't have the Beats audio if you opt for the hybrid, no room for the SW because of the battery

[@garyhayward7463]

@@69svejk unfortunately, that’s correct as the dealer did in the end confirm it’s not an option until 2022 model and not available on hybrid due to the reason you mentioned. I’m still really pleased with my choice as it will give a massive company car tax saving for me. I’ve also be given week 38 for build, so fingers crossed I should be driving it end of October 🤞

[@rpatel9901]

didyou get around to doing a video of driving it in petrol only which you mentioned in the video? i couldn't see it on your channel?

[@DamoDrives]

I have added a link to the description as well but here is the link kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKHWf3dubduForM. Hope you enjoyed it

[@rpatel9901]

@@DamoDrives great yes enjoyed it and this video was posted on the seat cupranet forum to explain how to optimise the charging of the battery whilst driving, all be it at the expense of petrol.

[@DamoDrives]

That’s cool, always wonder where the videos go and how people are finding them 😊

[@Kylem6875]

28:14 Love a bit of L’Amour Toujours! 😂😂

[@DamoDrives]

Good to hear 😂, that is what you call watching a video properly 👏

[@Kylem6875]

@@DamoDrives Indeed! I’m due a Leon Cupra PHEV at the end of the month and I’m looking up how best to use it, I do 250-mile round trips usually every two weeks with 30-40 miles on average when I’m around the local area on an average day, and I’ve calculated an average mpg, assuming I use EV as much as possible, of around 80 mpg, which saves me a lot of money for the 15k miles a year I plan on doing!

[@garymoon8609]

We're the video with dead battery ?

[@jhewitthunt]

Sorry fella, but have to disagree about the fiddlyness. I think your being a little too forgiving. I change my temperature and fan speed quite often. Even if I didn't, it should not need a "specialist genius" or whatever you called him to explain it. That's big red flag alarm bells straight away. Other than that, nice looking car, and thanks for doing the real world mpg test. Very useful 👍

[@DamoDrives]

Regarding the temperature controls you would find this out over time as an owner but for me having a car for a weekend I would probably not think about this. It’s a logical interface but usability when moving could certainly be better. Glad you enjoyed the video and trying to bring something a bit different to a review

[@andrews1532]

Nice 'real world' drive , but was it really real world MPG? We all know that on-board computers are often wildly inaccurate (usually highly optimistic), is it any different for e-Hybrids? My current noisy, dirty diesel proudly informs me that I've achieved 50-60 MPG on virtually every journey I do but calculated on mileage covered tank to tank shows an average of 41.7 MPG over about 55k miles. (The OBC average figures for each tank give an overall average of 47MPG - more realistic than the trip MPG but still 13% higher than reality). Have you or any other reviewers done such a test and seen how much petrol you actually had to put in for a long drive in a hybrid? Interesting review but it would have nailed it if you'd gone to the pump at start and finish. I remain unconvinced that these numbers are achievable - until then (or even then!) it'd be the petrol Formentor for me thanks - fantastic car if only I had the money. PHEVs will remain the domain of company car drivers for many more years in my opinion, and they probably don't give a hoot about MPG so the true cost will remain a mystery. Keep up the good work but let's have some real numbers please!

[@DamoDrives]

I agree the MPG on the trip might not be 100% accurate. The only issue with filling up is I do not get paid for these videos (adverts do pay a very small amount) so would cost be even more to make the videos lol

[@rosscookson]

Damo, the other disadvantage of any ‘infotainment system’ is that whilst you are concentrating on that you are driving at 41mph in a 30 limit! I assume you don’t use the indicators to save on the electric? It was a useful ‘real world’ review but do t forget to concentrate on your driving. 🤙

[@DamoDrives]

Glad you enjoyed the review.

[@craigduncan9979]

42mpg?

[@DamoDrives]

Not quite as bad as that

[@davidemarchi6366]

Yes it is very bad

[@DamoDrives]

They work well on shorter trips but really like the car.

[@RogueBrit]

Damo says don't buy that one it's had a bang in the door...

[@DamoDrives]

??

[@DavidBanks-vl5ru]

​@@DamoDrives A round 50 miles?

[@Freakymonify]

I have to wonder, every reviewer states that it's a good option as long as you charge the car regularly. Am I the only one who's wondering who the hell is buying any hybrid car and just not charging it overnight, or is buying one knowing they don't have the means to charge it? Excluding company car owners who got it just for the tax benefit.

[@DamoDrives]

A massive number of people will buy it as a company car. I think it is more it needs to be fully charged as often as possible and when ever you get a chance plug it in. Do a 30 miles trip with a full battery works but if you only charged it 50% or forgot to charge it over night then that will loose all benefits of having it.

[@Freakymonify]

@@DamoDrives Yeah i still don’t get people who just forget something like that. It’s basically the same as forgetting to fill up with regular petrol.

[@GrrMeister]

1:20 *I gotta be in bed by Midnight so hurry up ! Takes less than 3-5 Minutes to fill up with lovely Jubbly Fossil **_Dynosaur_** Fuel in my Mercedes W247 B200CDi CLEAN Diesel 85.6 MPG - considered Hybrid [B250 build an extra cost of £5.6k a no brainer] and gives me a Range of 600-700 Miles and filling stations rarely more than 10 miles away. - say no More.*

[@DamoDrives]

I do understand your point of view on this

[@Wetthewhistle]

I’ll guess around 50mpg

[@DamoDrives]

Possibly lol, bit of a longer video this so hope you stuck around 😂

[@Wetthewhistle]

@@DamoDrives I went right to the end and I guessed almost correct. Seen a review of the same setup Leon recently and it averaged 50mpg without ever being plugged in

[@DamoDrives]

It proves you need to charge the thing, was amazed how quickly it started to drop but was fun driving around for the day (all in the name of science lol)

[@Wetthewhistle]

@@DamoDrives It’s a shame it doesn’t regenerate enough to keep the battery topped up

[@DamoDrives]

You can force it to regenerate and that really really effects the mpg, I tried not to do that very often (going into eastbourne for 5 miles) and another 10 miles when nearly home. In the next video I used the regen a bit more to see what happened

[@GrrMeister]

*Cheaper running costs are a huge delusion unless you have access to 'free charging' - And even if able to charge at home the lowest rate you can achieve is Economy 7 overnight at around 5p per KWh. On Motorway Services the cost can be as high as 35p per KWh which when worked out makes it in fact more expensive than any car capable of 45 mpg or better. I over the last 12 months have spent many hours looking into this dilemma, and at the end to cut it short have recently purchased a Mercedes B200 CDi AMG registered May 2019 with 81 Miles on clock for around the same price, which surpassed the latest Euro 6 Emissions standards and can achieve up to 76.3 MPG (as I have over 90 Miles on my previous model (W246). This with it's superb quality and 'State of the Art' incredible 'Infotainment system' is light years away from this cheap Chinese import. You will not recover the addition cost of an EV within the life of the vehicle (battery's)*

[@DamoDrives]

You bring up some really intreasting points here, there is still a way to go but in 2030 we will not have a choice with new cars (wait for the huge sales boom in 2029)

[@James-yy4vl]

Your statement is simply incorrect on almost every level

[@sakispsinakis]

Is that with the 134HP? Why didn't you buy a 110HP or better a 90HP and compare it with this one? Better yet get a Smart and compare it. 😆

[@GrrMeister]

@@sakispsinakis 150 HP

[@GrrMeister]

10:20 *Really time to Pause - have you actually driven the latest Mercedes A200/B200 very very fuel efficient and CLEAN AdBlue Emissions - I wonder if you are are perhaps an Extinction Rebellion Activist in Disguise. Speech very Blurred at **10:14** are you sure you dropped in at "The Cock Inn" Pub ?*

[@DamoDrives]

I disguise myself as an activist by driving petrol cars and going to motorsport events lol. Guessing you are from around the area as you mentioned that pub (not been there in 30 years lol)

[@Turbomgzt]

Got a 73 plate 245 VZ1 hybrid and after 6k miles it's pants. Pathetic. Useless.

[@acptelford1307]

Currently 37mpg on mine after 5000 miles. Awful!

[@richardb2343]

I enjoyed the video. As for the car: 1) I love the design of the vehicle. 2) that display is terrible. Really terrible. The amount of time you had to spend looking at the screen when you wanted to check something is ridiculous, and a real safety hazard. Eyes should be on the road, not having to navigate through menus and fiddly touch screens. 3) my 9 year old c4 diesel hatchback is currently averaging 62 mpg. I am not at all impressed by the mpg of the Cupra.

[@DamoDrives]

Thanks Richard glad you enjoyed it, bit longer than normal but a lot to fit in lol. You are right there are ALOT of buttons, menus etc but I suspect it would get easier over time and some of that might have been able to be displayed on the dash (I had spent 10 minutes with the car before turning the cameras on although it is so similar to many of the other seat cars) it certainly looks great but mpg over that distance was certainly below the WLTP although I had a feeling it would not be great but got to have a nice day driving around and sharing the experience 😊

[@davidemarchi6366]

And diesel costs less than petrol