Cupra Terramar vs Lexus LM 500H

What's the difference?

There may be a lot of factors we don’t know yet, chief among them being price. One thing is for sure, though, the Terramar looks to be an intriguing and anything but dull mid-size SUV alternative for up-sizers or family buyers who love to drive.

While it might not be one of the more affordable options, it certainly makes the argument for a semi-premium alternative. Seems like Cupra’s last combustion car is certainly one worth waiting for.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Lexus LM 500h is luxurious, comfortable, practical, easy to drive and expensive. While it may appear to be the ultimate family car, with only four seats it's limited in terms of how many kids and their friends you can carry. On top of that, the privacy screen introduces accessibility issues to the kids you wouldn't encounter on other vehicles. If you are thinking of a Lexus people mover as your next family car I'd suggest looking at the LM 350h which has seven seats and no privacy screen. If you’re looking at a business class executive van the LM 500h would be perfect. 

The Terramar looks sharp. In the metal it’s clear this is a departure from its platform-mates, the Tiguan and Skoda Kodiaq.

In fact, with its rounded nose, sleek light fittings, and light-bar emblazoned and spoiler-fitted rear, the Terramar is looking, if anything, a bit Porsche in its silhouette.

Up front, the aggressive grille design is in part meant to evoke the fangs of a big cat, while down the side the ‘wave’ line in the bodywork of the doors is meant to not only look sporty but bring a unique highlight to the Terramar’s side profile.

Around the rear, the roofline culminates in a tidy spoiler piece, while the big rear diffuser references quad exhausts at the edges without actually featuring them.

The brand is also moving away from the standard gloss colour gamut, and onto something a bit unusual leading the charge with matt colour options and aggressive blacked-out wheel designs.

I, for one, love it. In a segment with so many derivative designs, the Terramar wears overt aggression, but at the same time measures it with an air of finesse and confidence. A design like this is hard to come by.

Inside, expect the usual Cupra highlights, and by that I mean expect the unexpected. Like its Formentor and Tavascan siblings, the Terramar’s interior is full of unusual textures, colours and materials.

Aside from the tidy steering wheel the brand has moved away from leathers, replacing soft-touch surfaces with a kind of Neoprene. It feels good and avoids feeling nasty through clever use of texture and colour.

The usual Volkswagen Group switchgear is here, new-generation big screens, with thankfully refreshed software which is both faster and easier to navigate than before. The digital dash elements, as usual, are the best on the market both in terms of design and customisation.

Even the seats have interesting shapes in a bucket-like design clad in a mix of neoprene and recycled ‘Seaqual’ fibres. Across the dash you can see highlight pieces not in chrome or gloss but in a kind of matt silver with a three-dimensional lizard-scale look.

Perhaps the best part of all of this is how evident it is that clear design thought has been given to every single piece of this car. It’s the opposite of the (supposedly) grand old days, where sticking another badge on a Tiguan would have done, and we’re all better for designs like this being in the market. 

The LM 500h doesn't look real. More like a concept vehicle with its vertical face wearing that enormous grille. Feels like if you watched it for long enough you’d catch it transforming into some kind of robot. Yet, at the same time its styling is elegant and prestigious.

I have a confession to make. I used this Lexus as my office. Its interior is that comfortable and spacious. I'm also a parent and there were times where it was the quietest place to get some work done.

It also let me observe people's reactions as they walked past with their dogs not knowing what was going on inside behind those tinted windows. The people that noticed were clearly car enthusiasts as they knew what they were looking at and couldn't pass without gaping it awe.

The LM 500h’s interior is superbly plush with thick carpets, beautiful copper metallic trim and nappa leather seats.

As I’ve said, the cockpit up front is less luxurious than the extravagant first class section in the back behind that dividing wall.

And yes, I’ve seen large screens before but nothing that stretches the width of the vehicle.

Up front the presence of big blocky seats, easy-access touchscreens, and a bit more space available on this 'MQB Evo' platform adds up for a solid practicality offering for those in the front seats.

Storage comes courtesy of big bottle holders in the doors, two more with variable edges in the centre console with a small tray next to it good for keys or wallets, a wireless phone charging bay in front and an armrest console box behind.

It doesn’t have the insane modularity of its Skoda Kodiaq cousin, but the intent of the Terramar is to be much more driver-focused and it feels it.

Similarly, the back seat doesn’t feel as lavish as it does in many rivals. It’s still sufficient, at least in the outboard positions, for an adult my size.

At 182cm tall, I have a bit of airspace for my knees and plenty of arm-flailing room with soft-touch materials in the doors, but the bucket seats up front and dark headliner trim close in the space compared to other cars on this platform.

This second row is also on rails, but moving it forward even a little bit will eat significantly into the space you have.

Amenity-wise there are pockets on the back of each front seat, bottle holders in each door, adjustable air vents on the back of the centre console with a third climate zone back there, as well as dual USB-C outlets for powering devices. The armrest console offers two more cupholders.

Expect a pretty solid boot space, internationally measured at 508 litres which would position it up there in terms of mid-size SUVs despite its more coupe-style roof when compared with its contemporaries.

You might be able to take Lexus out of Toyota but it's very hard to take Toyota out of Lexus and this particularly applies to the practicality of the LM 500h.

Every day I discovered new compartments, tray tables and storage areas. There are so many cabinets, lockers and hidey holes that we almost left my belongings (an entire family of plushie toy capybaras) behind because there are so many places to check.

Of course, I'm talking about the rear compartment here because up front there's not much storage. In fact, it proved to be quite a problem in that I had nowhere to put my bag with somebody sitting next to me and no area behind the front seats to stow it, either.

Talking of seats, the LM 500h only has four of them, with two up front and two in the rear. Up front, the seats are supportive and large, but the rear seats - those are, well... have a look at the images.

We’re talking two large captain's chairs that look as though they’ve been removed from the first class section of a plane.

And while this might be suitable for businesses shuttling a couple of executives to and from meetings, for a family, even with two children, the extra couple of seats a third row offers would come in handy.

The LM 350h has seven seats over three rows and no privacy screen. A far better choice for families.

For device charging there are USB ports up front and in the rear. There are wireless phone chargers for those in the back seats but not up front.

The LM 500h has a cargo capacity of 752 litres with all seats in place.

The Lexus LM 500h sits at the top of its range and is without a doubt one of the most expensive people movers on Earth with its list price of $220,888.

As you would imagine the standard features list is as extensive as it is extravagant.

For starters, while the regular LM 350h has two rows of seating in the rear (seven seats all up, including the front two), the 500h has the third row removed and just two super luxurious and enormous fully reclining seats fill the entire space. It’s like a theatre back there.

That theatre theme keeps going with a media screen in the back so large it stretches the width of the vehicle. Seriously, it's a 48-inch screen to watch movies or connect to your device.

The sound system is probably the best I’ve experienced - a spine tinglingly incredible 23-speaker Mark Levinson set-up.

What else can I tell you? Those rear seats are upholstered in beautifully soft semi-aniline leather. They’re heated and ventilated with a massaging function and... ridiculously comfortable.

There’s four-zone climate control, windows which have an electronic shade that turns the glass opaque, there are wireless phone chargers in the doors and carpet throughout so thick you sink down into it as you step inside.

Our LM 500h was upholstered in the 'Solis White' leather which also brings contrasting and mesmerising copper metallic trim.

Oh, and there’s a wall with an electric glass screen that can be raised or lowered to separate the rear passengers from the driver.

I should have mentioned this earlier. The kids loved it, but these parents spent a lot of time telling the 10- and three-year old not to put the screen up again.

The rear occupants, aka the kids, can also lock the screen in place. Which they did, and so sound proof is the dividing wall that we can only just hear their uproarious laughter.

Up front, the cockpit is comfortable but it’s clear all the space and luxury is for those being driven around.

Still, the front seats are leather with heating and ventilation, there’s a 14-inch media screen and 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster, plus a head-up display. Sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard.

Two powertrains have been revealed for the Terramar, including a 2.0-litre four-cylinder (195TSI) all-wheel drive version, which produces 195kW/400Nm, as well as a 1.5-litre four-cylinder plug-in hybrid which can put down a combined 200kW/400Nm.

Both have been confirmed for Australia, although we understand a 1.5-litre four-cylinder mild-hybrid (MHEV) version is also likely for production, producing 110kW/250Nm driving the front wheels alone. Check back closer to the Terramar’s Australian arrival - scheduled for late 2025 - for local powertrain details.

For the purposes of this review, the pre-production version we drove was a 2.0-litre, 195kW, all-wheel drive version.

The LM 500h is a petrol-electric hybrid with a 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine which makes 202kW/460Nm and works in concert with two electric motors.

The front motor makes 64kW/292Nm and the rear makes 76kW/169Nm. The combined maximum power output of the two motors and the petrol engine is 273kW.

The LM 500h is all wheel-drive and has a six-speed automatic transmission.

The 195TSI version tested here has a combined fuel consumption number of 8.8L/100km in its international spec sheet and it requires mid-shelf 95RON unleaded fuel.

If that’s a bit high for you, the plug-in hybrid version uses a new-generation PHEV set-up from VW Group, with claimed fuel consumption as low as 0.5L/100km.

It's equipped with a relatively large 25kWh battery pack allowing a WLTP-certified driving range of 112km in electric-only mode.

It is capable of charging up on an AC unit at a rate of 11kW for a charge time of 2.5 hours, while on a fast DC charger (rare for a PHEV) it can top up in just 26 minutes.

Lexus says after a combination of urban and open roads the LM 500h should use 6.6L/100km. In our own testing we found consumption was higher at 9.4L/100km.

Worth noting my driving environment was mainly a hilly suburban one filled with school drop offs. Achieved some personal bests this week, with one long run to Sydney’s outskirts, only to return in nightmarish peak hour traffic.

Premium (95 RON) fuel is required and the tank size is 60 litres. In theory the driving range is a smidge more than 900km, which drops to around 640km using our real-world average.

The eyebrow-raising factor about Cupra building a mid-size SUV is that it seems to be the antithesis of the brand’s aggressive and sporty philosophy. Sure, it gets away with the Formentor, but only because the crossover proved to be quite distinct from something like its VW T-Roc platform-mate.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to find the brand has done it again. As soon as you sit in the Terramar it’s clear this SUV isn’t your average family hauler.

The bucket-style seats immediately hug you, the dash is set nice and low giving you a clear view of the road ahead, and the steering wheel, which the Terramar shares with every other Cupra model, feels suddenly smaller, but just-right under hand.

As soon as you set off, things improve. The 195TSI engine is a belter, and works very nicely with the dual-clutch auto to provide a solid basis for hard acceleration.

While DCT transmissions in the past have been notable for laggy engagement, this latest version (common to other new VW Group products, like the incoming third-generation Tiguan) has been smoothed out, making it feel almost like a traditional automatic from a standstill.

The steering is superb. Not only does the wheel feel ergonomic under hand, but the steering itself is ultra-sharp, making even an SUV this size respond with a feline reactivity.

Wide (255 aspect) tyres reinforce the Terramar’s confidence in the corners, and accelerating out is met by the dual-clutch allowing you to properly ride out the gears, paired with an agreeable engine note.

Standard adaptive dampers feature, giving the Terramar more of a sophisticated feel of the road than many of its platform-mates, although with large wheels and a sportier Cupra-specific damper set, there is a concern that it may ride hard on Australian roads. On the quality European tarmac we tested it on, however, it was comfortable enough.

Sound insulation in the cabin seemed up to the task as well, with the Terramar providing a nice ambiance for countryside driving thanks to low levels of tyre roar and wind noise.

Factors against it? The rear window aperture is a bit small making visibility directly rearward a bit limited, and the lack of physical control dials for core climate and multimedia functions can be distracting when you’re trying to alter them on-the-go.

Other than these small detractors, though, the Terramar is an impressive mid-size SUV. It’s comfortable and quiet, but has attitude in spades and attacks the road with a certain level of confidence well outside the realm of most family haulers in this size-bracket.

It might not be the most affordable option in this category when it arrives, but a keen driver whose budget doesn’t quite stretch to a Porsche Macan will appreciate what the Terramar has to offer.

Quite simply, driving the LM 500h is like piloting a limousine on stilts. Superbly comfortable, but with an elevated driving position that offers outstanding forward and side visibility, the LM 500h is an easy vehicle to drive for long periods of time.

A digital rear vision mirror means visibility behind is good and unobstructed by the privacy screen or the seats.

The drawbacks are down to the lack of space up front, with the driver’s chair limited in its ability to recline or slide back due to the bulkhead behind it.

And that's compounded by the lack of cabin storage for bags if the front passenger seat is taken.

As for the rear passengers there aren't many people movers offering this level of comfort, except perhaps the Zeekr 009.

Variable suspension that adjusts continuously keeps the vehicle composed and provides a high level of comfort for those in the rear. At the same time, the LM stays nice and flat through roundabouts while remaining civilised over speed bumps.

And then there's the acceleration, which, while not supercar-like is incredibly brisk for a van. The all-wheel drive system provides outstanding traction in wet and slippery conditions, too. 

Our family used the LM daily for everything from school runs to shopping trips and weekends away and not only was it fun to drive, our lucky rear passengers enjoyed sitting high and being able to see clearly out their windows along with the luxury of a giant movie screen.

The Lexus  LM 500h is yet to be tested by ANCAP so it doesn't have a safety assessment score. There is, however, a high level of safety tech onboard including AEB which can detect pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other vehicles, emergency steering assist, lane keeping assistance, road sign recognition, rear cross-traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors as well as six airbags.

For child seats there are ISOFIX points and top tether anchor mounts on the two rear seats. We have a forward facing child seat and found it easy to install.

A space-saver spare wheel is located under the boot floor.

Cupra currently offers five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty in Australia, which we expect will extend to the Terramar when it arrives Down Under. 

We also expect it to have the same service pack regime, which is most affordable when pre-packaged at the time of purchase. Check back at its local launch for pricing and further details.

Lexus covers the LM 500h with a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. 

The Lexus Encore Platinum program is complimentary for LM owners for three years, providing 24-hour roadside assist, a loan vehicle or pick-up/return service at service time, 'On Demand' vehicle evaluation options, valet and airport parking benefits as well as exclusive offers and event opportunities.

Servicing is recommended annually or every 15,000 kilometres, and impressively, pricing is capped at $695 per service over five years.