The dominance of SUVs in the automotive industry may be starting to cool, with sales of city and large SUVs seeing meaningful declines year-on-year.
While many automakers have moved to passenger lineups consisting almost entirely of SUVs, Cupra is bucking the trend by launching a small station wagon in Australia – with both performance and plug-in hybrid versions on offer.
With the Cupra Leon Sportstourer arriving in the Australian market, CarExpert asked Jeff Shafer, head of product for Cupra Australia, whether the tide could turn from SUVs to wagons.
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“I’m really hoping it does, because I love wagons! And I’d love to think that they’re coming full circle,” he said.
“So, we’ll see. It’s a little bit hard to know. There’s a lot of chatter, a lot of inquiries, there’s a lot of interest. I’d like to see that turn into orders.”
Whereas station wagons traditionally held the image of being something of a boring family hauler, the gradual disappearance of wagons means that label appears to have transferred to SUVs.
Popular YouTube channels such as Speeed and Australia’s ReDriven have also been spruiking the benefits of ‘longroofs’ in recent times.
Cupra launched the plug-in hybrid Leon Sportstourer VZe locally in late 2025, before announcing pricing for the forthcoming VZx in June 2026 – with the all-wheel-drive performance variant borrowing its 245kW/420Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol powertrain from the Volkswagen Golf R.
Along with torque-vectoring technology, the small wagon is said to be able to complete the 0-100km/h sprint in 4.8 seconds.
“I think that wagons have come a long way from where they were,” Mr Shafer told CarExpert.
“But maybe the tide’s turning. And I think the Leon Sportstourer is going to be a cracker of a car. So, maybe it can help bring back the wagon.”