No Cupra sports car coming anytime soon

European performance car fans hankering for a dedicated Cupra sports car will have to keep waiting – indefinitely – as the Volkswagen-owned Spanish brand’s focus remains firmly on SUVs, crossovers and hatchbacks.

Speaking to Australian media, including carsales, last week, Cupra president and CEO Wayne Griffiths said he would love to offer a sports car along similar lines to the wild 2023 Cupra DarkRebel concept, but admitted there were other priorities to focus on.

“We need to grow the Cupra brand and therefore we need volume models … and obviously we have limited resources that we have to prioritise and at the moment I think the Cupra DarkRebel sports car is a dream,” he said.

“But you never know, if you dream big then that can come true someday, but there is no concrete plan at the moment to build the car – it is not our priority at the moment.

“At the end of the day we have to be able to afford it … we need more exceptional years to make a decision.”

Global Cupra sales were up 50 per cent last year to about 230,000 units, making it one of the fastest-growing brands in Europe.

The current range comprises the Leon hatch and Formentor crossover (both based on VW Group’s MQB Evo platform), Ateca SUV (MQB) and Born electric hatch (MEB), but will soon expand with the release of the new Terramar SUV later this year, followed by the Tavascan and Raval EVs in 2025.

These new models are being developed in collaboration with Volkswagen, Skoda and, where appropriate, Audi – something Griffiths said was essential for a new brand in a transitioning market and would be absolutely critical in getting a sports car across the line.

“You always need a sibling … particularly at that level of volume, in that niche market [halo sports cars],” he said.

“But that is the strength of the Volkswagen Group – we have so many brands, we have platforms, we have technology we can share, we have also production sites that we can share.

“So the fact the cars are built on the same platforms in big volumes gives us scale, and the fact we can build different cars in the same factory on the same platform also gives us synergies and makes us competitive.

“A platform of the DarkRebel exists or will exist in the VW Group with or without us [Cupra] … it would definitely have to be a project with another brand.”

These comments reinforce those from Cupra COO Sven Schuwirth last year at the Munich motor show, where he said a production-spec DarkRebel could potentially share its platform and powertrain components with the next-generation Porsche 718.

Until then, Cupra fans will have to settle for the brand’s athletic and stylish hatches, crossovers and SUVs, the EV successors to which should be set apart from their contemporaries by emotional driving experiences and designs.

“All electric cars are fast, so all electric cars accelerate linear … in an electric world what is performance?” Griffiths pitched.

“We say Cupra’s based on design and performance – I think in an electric era we need to talk more about emotional driving experience or emotions, and I think there you need to look further in terms of just acceleration.

“Handling will be important: that the car feels nice like a go kart, so the handling’s important, how the car brakes, the batteries in the cars are heavy, so you need to have the centre of gravity low … but I think the biggest difference will be bringing a 360-degree sensorial experience.

“So not only the way the car feels and drives, but what you see … and the sound – even in an electric era where electric cars don’t have exhausts, don’t have backfire, there are things you can do to make that experience very special and we’re working on that for the Cupra Raval.

“We do driver’s cars that are fun to drive and that’s what we want to focus on.”

The 2025 Cupra Raval will enter production late next year as the Spanish brand’s entry-level hatchback.

A hot 166kW version of the UrbanRebel from which the Raval will be derived was also shown in 2022.

Acceleration from 0-100km/h is expected to be done and dusted in less than seven seconds, while a sub-1500kg kerb weight should ensure some entertaining dynamics.

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