Cupra’s baby brother to the Born looks just right to Kiwi distributor

ANOTHER Cupra set to ultimately achieve New Zealand residency now has a name to put on its passport.

The Volkswagen Group’s Spanish arm has revealed the upcoming affordable compact electric car it intends to put into production within two years is to be called the Raval.

Named after a historic district of Barcelona, this is the production version of the 'UrbanRebel' concept.

Will it fit into the New Zealand scene?

So easily says James Yates, who heads the distribution network for Cupra and SEAT.

“Yes, we are definitely keen on that for NZ,” he said today after a head office reveal of the images and video here. 

“At that size and look, we think there is a strong market for it.”

Kiwis will have to be a little patient. On current timeline, the baby street racer looks set to arrive at least a year after Cupra’s next full electric, the Tavascan – arriving late 2024, from a plant in China. 

Best bet for Raval at the moment is that “it won’t likely arrive in NZ until 2026.”

Cupra has yet to lend insight into full technical detail, the specification and, of course, the pricing. But it’s been signed off as a compact crossover of just four metres’ length, almost a hatchback, based on the same mechanical package as the production version of the Volkswagen ID.2all. 

It will be built at SEAT and Cupra's home factory in Martorell, just outside Barcelona, alongside the an electric Volkswagen and an upcoming compact Skoda electric using the same package.  

Expectation is that it and the sister models will deliver a one-charge range of around 420km. 

The Volkswagen Group has announced intent to invest $NZ5.25 billion in updating and refitting Martorell.

SEAT/Cupra is in good shape to afford to do that. It has registered a record operating profit of $252 million and a turnover of $6.3 billion, which represents a 48 percent increase in comparison to the first three months of 2022.

However, much of that gain was created by Cupra, which having begun as a sports sub-brand for SEAT has now rebirthed as a marque in its own right.

Since that moment, in 2018, Cupra has sold more than 300,000 cars. In 2022, the brand reached $7.7 billion in turnover, 40 percent of SEAT's total. The 2023 figures are also positive, being 83 percent ahead year-on-year.

Cupra has become so strong there’s talk SEAT will cease to be as a car brand by 2030, and will instead concentrate on urban mobility provision - scooters and ultra-compact EVs that would in this market be considered quadricycles.

Wayne Griffiths, Cupra's chief executive, steered clear of that during a media seminar in Spain.

But he is in no doubt about where Cupra is heading. There’s confidence Raval will lend Cupra as much strength, if not more, than the Born crossover which is just coming into New Zealand now, initially for demonstration ahead of full on-sale in September.

“The Cupra Raval is not just another car,” Griffiths told media at the weekend.

“It is an invitation to a new generation, which expects something better. An urban, rebellious and 100 percent electric car, with its own character and linked to 'Gen Z'. Something that's more emotional.”

The reveal of the Raval comes weeks after the Tavascan all-electric SUV launched in Germany, an occasion where Cupra also revealed something of its interest in the online 'Meta-space' with the launch of its DarkRebel digital-only car, which 1