Volkswagen-owned Spanish brand Cupra has gotten off to a faltering start in Australia.

While the performance car company built a healthy order bank in the first few months of local sales, it was forced to apologize to about a third of customers who ordered Cupra Born electric hatchbacks after requesting a free maintenance quote had been Error.

In late December 2022, Cupra Australia announced on its website a free maintenance offer for most new model ranges.

However, the deal was incorrectly applied to the Cupra Born electric car; The offer should only apply to the Cupra Leon, Cupra Ateca and Cupra Formentor models.

Although Cupra Australia fixed the online error within 24 hours of going live, around a third of the 343 orders for the Cupra Born were received when the maintenance offer was announced.

Cupra says it immediately removed the free service offering on the Born page of its website and then contacted customers to alert them to the error.

Instead of honoring the free maintenance contract, Cupra instead opted to offer customers a full refund of their deposit.

To date, it’s not clear how many, if any, Cupra Born customers have canceled their order after being told the free service package was incorrectly displayed.

A statement from Cupra Australia read: “A temporary error occurred when ordering a Born which included the limited time free maintenance offer for the Leon, Formentor and Ateca.

“We have offered customers who ordered a Born and saw this error on our website the option of a full refund of their deposit.”

Cupra says maintenance costs for the yet-to-be-released electric Born hatch will be announced closer to showroom arrival.

Deliveries of the Cupra Born Hot Hatch are scheduled for late March or early April 2023, barring any delays, the company said.