The Cupra Raval might be the primary electric supermini from Volkswagen Group heading to its franchised dealers next yr, giving them an enormous opportunity to compete for more EV customers.
That is in line with Seat and Cupra chief executive Markus Haupt, talking to Automotive Management’s sister brand CAR last month, when he also talked frankly in regards to the cost-driven limitations for Seat, which can deal with refreshing its internal combustion engined cars while its business case for an EV develops.
Its Ibiza and Arona models are being refreshed, which shows the corporate remains to be investing in Seat in addition to Cupra. “We want to have each of those brands, because they present themselves to different customers – customers for each brands still exists in several markets,” he told CAR’s Jake Groves.
While Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra – will all put out EVs on the brand new, cost-efficient front-wheel drive MEB+ architecture – upon which the Cupra Raval is built – Haupt (pictured) said there isn’t yet elbow room for Seat to make the most.
“If there may be a combustion ban and the one possible future is electrical, the difficulty we’ve for the time being is that an electrical automotive platform is an expensive one, and Seat is less profitable than Cupra – that was one in every of the explanations the Born become a Cupra,” he said.
“Today we don’t have an answer to supply a Seat on an electrical platform where we will earn money. There might be a moment when an electrical Seat might be feasible, but not immediately. Until then, we keep refreshing our Seat models and keep them attractive for our customers.”
Yet Haupt was quick to guarantee that the Seat brand won’t be on life support perpetually and left behind by Cupra. “We now have two babies, and we cannot say that one is nicer than the opposite, but we’re exploring and can at all times be exploring the long run of Seat.”
Haupt confirmed that the Raval might be the primary of the MEB+ cars from Volkswagen Group to launch in 2026.
“Raval is the primary automotive be launched on this family, and it matches our DNA. It’s got striking design, electrifying performance inspired by performance… so from a positioning perspective it would be essentially the most emotional and sporty automotive of this family.”
Haupt added that the Cupra Tindaya concept, show on the Munich Motor Show with a spread extender using the brand new Scalable Systems Platform that’ll launch inside the VW Group brands over the following few years, might be an actual automotive within the years to return.
“We haven’t taken a call on the powertrain for Tindaya, but it would needless to say be on a future platform of the group,” he said.
“I believe one of the best decision for us immediately is to maintain things as flexible as possible. A REEV , possibly? Why not? May very well be a pure EV. Why not? The automotive will come, realistically, towards the start of the following decade, so we’ve a little bit of time to start out developing the project.”
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
