Are you staunchly anti SUV? Cupra is keeping the wagon alive with the 245kW 2025 Cupra Leon Sportstourer coming to Australia next year with drift mode and VW Golf R mechanicals

If you's an SUV hater upset that Volkswagen dropped the Golf R wagon you’ve got something to look forward to because the brand’s cool Spanish cousin is filling the gap with its new 245kW Leon Sportstourer. 

Timed to coincide with the facelifted Cupra Leon hot hatch range due in April 2025, the long-roof Leon VZx will hit Australian shores a few months later. 

"We've been really pushing hard for the Australian introduction of the Sportstourer,” said Cupra Australia Head of Product and Marketing Jeff Shafer.

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“We are now expecting this to enter into Australia next year a couple of months after the Leon and Formentor.

"The petrol flagship in the Formentor, and we expect it in the Sporstourer, is now a 245kW engine and that's paired with the torque vectoring all-wheel-drive system. So effectively the drift mode and the ability to send torque to wherever it is needed," said Mr Shafer. 

Those 245kW and 420Nm outputs and torque vectoring all-wheel-drive system are the same that feature in the existing Golf R 20 Years edition which should make the Sportstourer suitably spicy. 

Final figures aren’t in yet but a 0-100km/h time under five seconds is very likely, giving it a leg up on the front-drive only 221kW Leon VZx hatch. 

Unlike the VZx hatch, the Sportstourer is AWD

Cupra may also offer the Leon Sportstourer with a plug-in hybrid powertrain as it has seen recent success with the set-up. The facelift will bring a new 19.7kWh battery that should equate to a circa-100km electric-only driving range. 

The list of performance-oriented wagons in Australia has shrunk though the genre is enjoying a resurgence among enthusiasts. 

In the affordable camp it’s only the Skoda Octavia RS that offers true performance. The Volkswagen Passat is dead in Oz and very few others remain beyond the Mazda6.

Cupra will look to capitalise on the cult appeal of wagons: Audi’s RS4 and RS6’s as well as BMW’s critically acclaimed M3 wagon and soon-to-launch plug-in hybrid M5 Touring.

Prices for the updated Cupra models are not confirmed. The current VZx hatch lists at $65,690 drive-away, while the Golf R wagon left the market at $71,990 before on-road costs. A starting price around $75K drive-away for the full-fat Leon Sportstourer VZx seems realistic.