Cupra Formentor driving on a winding coastal road with a cliffside and ocean in the background” width=”970″ height=”647″ data-caption=’The Cupra Formentor. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Courtesy Cupra</span>’>
The car business is changing in ways we can’t even quantify. A new American company called Slate Auto, partially funded by Jeff Bezos, just announced the launch of a bare-bones, $25,000 electric truck. Tesla (TSLA) is about to launch a fleet of 300 robot taxis in Austin, Texas. EV companies based in China have just announced a breakthrough technology that will allow cars to charge in five minutes, about the same amount of time it takes to fill up a car with gas. Uncertainty surrounding President Trump’s tariff policies means we have no idea how much a Toyota or Audi will cost next month, or even next year.
Amidst all this, I spent a couple of days in Miami recently learning about an automotive brand called Cupra, which is also marketing itself as something new, but really isn’t. Cupra, which I learned is short for “cup racing,” is a Spanish car brand that was once part of the discount car brand Seat, and which started as partnership between Fiat and the Spanish government. Volkswagen (VWAPY) took control of Seat in the 1980s. Cupra was initially a line of performance models within the Seat brand, but in 2018, separated from the nest to assume its own identity, much like Genesis recently did from Hyundai.
It has been extremely successful. Cupra found a hip urban market segment somewhere between economy and luxury cars, and has sold itself cleverly through a series of “urban garages” in stylish European (and Latin American) neighborhoods. There is a lot of cross-marketing with DJs and indie filmmakers. They recently launched a product line at Milan Fashion Week that includes suitcases and a hoodie that is also a backpack. It’s pretty savvy for a series of vehicles that are essentially slightly hipper versions of the Volkswagen Golf, built almost entirely on the Golf platform. If the island of Ibiza were a car, it would be a Cupra.
Cupra’s current lineup includes a Compact Sports Utility Vehicle called the Formentor, a stylish electric SUV coupe called the Tavascan, and an electric SUV called the Terramar. An electric “urban EV” called the Raval is coming in 2026. At least it will be coming to Europe. The plan, we were told in Miami, is for Cupra to appear in the United States “by the end of the decade,” which really means, they later told us, by 2030. They have no idea which models will be available, or which powertrains. There will be some sort of unclear partnership with Penske Motors. Because the launch date is so far away, there is no information on how much the cars will cost. The corporation, however, will be registered in Delaware.
Cupra allowed us to dip into one of their cars for a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon, which I drove through heavy urban traffic. I got to drive the Formentor EV hybrid, which has 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) of pure electric range, though by the time I got into it, it had six kilometers (just under four miles) of pure electric range left, so really, it wasn’t an electric car at all. Essentially, I drove a Volkswagen Golf with a nice carbon-fiber body and some stylish triangular lines. The on-screen nav system was a little wonky, so I ended up driving back and forth over the same bridge three times, constantly having to U-turn through rush hour. My drive partner took the wheel for a bit, and did that thing that car writers do where they jiggle the wheel aggressively back and forth. The car did not explode or careen onto its side, so I guess that was successful. It was relatively cute and capable, and at €40,000 (about $45,500), I guess that’s an acceptable price point at the moment. If you went to Barcelona and rented one, you’d be very happy.
But if you really must drive a Cupra, you’d have to go to Europe, or maybe Mexico. I must reiterate that there won’t be a Cupra “urban garage” anywhere in the United States until 2030 at the earliest. We assume Donald Trump won’t be president then, but we can’t really guess what the climate will be for foreign-made cars, or electric cars, or what the automotive world will look like in any way. Five years is the blink of an eye in the lifetime of a car company. But given the rate of change in the industry, and the fact that the cars themselves are competent and well-marketed but not revolutionary, it’s impossible to say if Cupra will finally arrive on American shores with full flag flying, or with a whimper.
