Cupra, a brand spawned from Volkswagen-owned SEAT (like Polestar and Volvo), has announced plans to release three new electrified models by 2025. The young company hopes that adding a city-friendly hatchback and a pair of crossovers to its range will help it reach its goal of selling 500,000 cars per year.
The most intriguing future addition to the Cupra range is arguably the UrbanRebel, a 158-inch-long electric city car that shares its MEB Small platform with the ID.Life concept that Volkswagen unveiled in 2021. Designed to slot at the bottom of the firm’s line-up, it stands out from the ID.Life with a more muscular-looking exterior design that borrows some styling cues from the Born, an ID.3-based EV. If you’re experiencing déjà vu, it’s likely because the UrbanRebel was loosely previewed in 2021 by an electric race car concept called UrbanReel.
While the track-bound design study offered up to 429 horsepower, the showroom-bound hatchback is powered by a 226-horsepower electric motor that zaps the front wheels into motion. Cupra quotes a 0 to 62 mph time of 6.9 seconds and up to 273 miles of driving range.
UrbanRebel production is tentatively scheduled to start in Martorell, Spain, in 2025.
Cupra will also release a pair of crossovers called Terramar and Tavascan, respectively, before it begins building the UrbanRebel. Pictured in silver in our gallery, the Terramar will be offered with a plug-in hybrid gasoline powertrain capable of delivering about 62 miles of electric range. Audi will build this model alongside the Q3 and the TT in Györ, Hungary, and deliveries will start in 2024.
Next is the Tavascan, a crossover with a fastback-like silhouette that’s shown in blue in our gallery. Details about this model are few and far between; all we know at this stage is that it’s electric and built on the modular MEB platform. The shape suggests it could be related to the VW ID.5 It’s scheduled to enter production in 2024.
As of writing, nothing suggests that Cupra’s three upcoming models will be sold in the United States.
Cupra isn’t a household name in Europe — at least not as a standalone division. For many years, SEAT used the Cupra nameplate to denote hot-rodded variants of its Ibiza and Leon. Some joked that Cupra was the Spanish translation of “GTI.” Volkswagen Group executives transformed Cupra into a standalone brand in 2018, and the Formentor crossover made its debut in 2020 as the first model developed in-house by the firm. It’s built on the MQB platform and it’s available with Audi’s turbocharged five-cylinder engine.
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