Cupra Formentor EV Charging Cable

The 2024 change is bigger than a facelift

Cupra kept the name and replaced almost everything that matters here. The 2021 to mid-2024 e-HYBRID pairs a 1.4 engine with a 12.8 kWh battery, about 10.4 kWh usable, good for 37 electric miles on the 204 PS car and 34 on the VZ. From mid-2024 the 1.5 arrived with 19.7 kWh usable from a 25.8 kWh pack, and electric range jumped to 71 to 78 miles.

Charging changed in three separate ways: the AC rating, whether the car can take DC at all, and the cable Cupra puts in the boot. Which car you have decides which lead to buy, so be certain before you order.

The earlier car: 3.6 kW, and that is the whole story

The 12.8 kWh Formentor has a single phase 3.6 kW charger, and because it is genuinely single phase you get all of it on a British supply. Cupra publishes the row itself: three hours thirty-three minutes from empty at 3.6 kW on 16 amps, and five hours on a 2.3 kW socket.

No cable can lift that figure: the onboard charger decides it. A 16A cable covers this car completely and a 32A one is money spent on current it will not accept. One trap: at least one UK motoring site tabulates that same three hours thirty-three minutes under a 7.4 kW heading. A 10.4 kWh battery taking three and a half hours is under 3 kW average, so that label is wrong.

No part of this car accepts DC, so rapid charging is off the table entirely. Charging happens through the Type 2 socket or it does not happen, and that makes the cable the one accessory the car genuinely cannot manage without.

The 2024 car: rapid charging arrives, and a question does too

The newer Formentor gained a CCS socket and 50 kW DC charging, ten to eighty per cent in 26 minutes, which changes the character of the car on a long run. Cupra quotes two and a half hours from empty on AC.

There is a question here we cannot answer and would rather flag than fudge. On the later car the headline is 11 kW over three phases; the single phase draw is not in any Cupra document we can find. If the charger is 16A per phase and nothing more, one phase means about 3.7 kW. If it will take 32A, it means about 7.4 kW. The strongest clue is commercial rather than technical: the Mode 3 lead supplied with the car changed from 16A to 32A when the new drivetrain arrived. So we recommend 32A, and we are telling you it is a judgement rather than a specification.

How long a full charge takes

The calculation is the battery over the delivered kW, uplifted 13 per cent for charging losses, quarter hour rounded. Range added per hour assumes a year round 3.5 miles per kWh rather than a best case figure. Columns are the pre-2024 car at 10.4 kWh usable and the later one at 19.7. The 32A row applies only to the later car, and only if it does draw 32A from one phase.

Either way these are short charges. Even the larger battery on the slower rate finishes inside an evening, which is the point of a plug-in hybrid.

Which length for a Formentor

Both generations put the charge flap on the nearside front wing, opposite the fuel filler. That is the kerb side of the car in the UK, and it is at the front, so nosing into a bay with the wall box on your left is the short-cable case.

Five metres is enough for many Formentor owners on that basis. Ten metres suits an offside charge point, a bay set well back, or a car that parks nose out. Work it out from where the car genuinely sits, not where it could sit, and leave slack.

How these cables are built

Made to IEC 62196-2, CE marked, and rated IP55 from -30C to +50C so it lives outdoors all year.

The three pin version is an IEC 62752 unit, CE marked and IP67 sealed, specified -30C to +60C. Two year warranty from the manufacturer, free next day delivery in the UK, 30 day returns.

Also from Cupra: Cupra Born EV Charging Cable. The full range of Cupra charging cables is on one page. For a wall box or public post the lead is the Type 2 to Type 2 charging cable.

Cupra Formentor charging cable questions

Which cable does my Formentor e-HYBRID need?

A pre-2024 car with the 12.8 kWh battery needs only a 16A Type 2 to Type 2 cable, because it is limited to 3.6 kW. A 2024-on car with the 19.7 kWh battery should have the 32A version.

Can a Formentor e-HYBRID use a rapid charger?

Only the 2024-on car, which has a CCS socket and takes 50 kW, ten to eighty per cent in 26 minutes. The earlier car has no DC inlet at all.

Why will nobody tell me the single phase charging speed of the new one?

Because Cupra does not publish it. The 11 kW rating is a three phase figure and the single phase draw is either about 3.7 kW or about 7.4 kW depending on a current limit that is not in any document we can find. A dealer can check it against your registration.

How long does a Formentor e-HYBRID take to charge?

The older 12.8 kWh car takes three and a half hours from empty at 3.6 kW, which is Cupra's own figure. The 19.7 kWh car takes two and a half hours on three phase power and longer at home.

Where is the charge port?

Nearside front wing on both generations, opposite the fuel filler.