In line with Cupra’s CEO, the model has a bonus that different automakers throughout the Volkswagen Group don’t: It lacks historical past. Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, and even Volkswagen have deep heritages and complicated traditions baked into their identities, which include sure expectations.

Cupra doesn’t have to fret about any of that. The model is just six years previous.

“I believe that places us in a very good place to compete in opposition to different challenger manufacturers which can be coming into the market,” Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths informed Motor1 forward of the Los Angeles Auto Present final month. “And I believe the VW Group wants that as effectively.”

SEAT created Cupra in 2018 as a standalone marquee, and it’s been a hit throughout Europe ever since. Cupra has bought 750,000 vehicles on the continent in simply six years, with VW Group’s house nation of Germany changing into the model’s largest market.

“What encourages me is the success we’ve had in such a remarkably brief time in Europe, notably in markets like Germany,” Griffiths stated. “That offers me confidence that if we will try this in Europe, then we may additionally… have success within the US [United States] as effectively.”

Picture by: Cupra

Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths

“I believe that places us in a very good place to compete in opposition to different challenger manufacturers which can be coming into the market.”

Griffiths plans to convey the Spanish model to the US by the tip of the last decade. The automaker is already contemplating a big SUV that can immediately enchantment to American shoppers, greater than what Cupra at the moment gives in Europe, and it’s exploring a partnership with Penske Automotive Group to supply the distribution and retail expertise.

The CEO stated the model will want merchandise “Individuals would recognize,” which, he added, doesn’t essentially imply “the identical lineup of merchandise which have been actually profitable in Europe.” We don’t know what the portfolio may seem like, however Cupra’s present lineup throughout the pond is generally an assortment of crossovers.

Griffiths additionally revealed that the corporate’s preliminary plan to launch right here as a pure battery-electric model is useless on arrival because the EV market falters in America and Europe. Patrons may count on hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and traditional combustion powertrains when Cupra arrives, at the same time as the corporate works towards an electrified future.

“I believe you want the precise product for the market, and that’s not simply bringing your European merchandise right here,” he stated.

Cupra has discovered followers in youthful European consumers, a demographic the corporate hopes to courtroom within the US. Cupra’s clients are a “era youthful than the remainder of the market,” in response to Griffiths, by about 10 to fifteen years. He attributes that success to the model’s design and options.

The youthful era has “a distinct set of values,” stated Griffiths. “They’re searching for one thing completely different. They need to drive a automobile completely different than what their mother and father or grandparents drove. They need to stand out.”

Cupra is already testing the model’s design language and market positioning with American shoppers, which the CEO stated has gone “actually, rather well.” Nonetheless, Griffiths doesn’t underestimate the problem of coming to the US, saying the model must depend on the dimensions and present platforms of VW Group to make sure Cupra is worthwhile within the US.

“We don’t need to be a quantity model, so we have to share some scale, some technological platforms with different manufacturers,” he stated. Cupra will want not less than a few vehicles with adequate quantity to make its technique work and to have the ability to generate profits, and it’ll doubtless should construct not less than one of many US vehicles someplace within the North American area.

“You’re speaking about 50,000 models per automobile as a perfect minimal,” he stated, however any likelihood a type of fashions can be a manufacturing model of the two-door DarkRebel idea is unlikely to occur anytime quickly.

“If you wish to grow to be an iconic model, then you have to have iconic merchandise,” Griffiths admitted as he thought-about the model’s future lineup. Nonetheless, he stated Cupra has to “look ahead to the precise time to have the ability to put money into that sort of product [DarkRebel] as a result of this can be a very small quantity, very area of interest.”

Such a automobile would undoubtedly set some expectations for the model going ahead.