Cupra Born to be priced about $60K; Tavascan, UrbanRebel confirmed for Australia

Cupra will sell a single highly-specified version of the Born electric hatchback in Australia from early 2023.

Visiting executives from the Volkswagen-owned brand have also confirmed Australia will get the upcoming Tavascan and UrbanRebel EVs as the company looks to snare a 5 percent share of the growing electric car market.

Cupra will launch with three cars, including the Leon hatchback, Formentor SUV and Ateca crossover. The Leon and Formentor are available with a plug-in hybrid EV system that combines a 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbo engine with an electric motor to make a combined 180kW.

READ MORE: Cupra showcases its electrified future with three soon-to-arrive models

But it’s the upcoming electric cars the Spanish brand nominates as the most important.

“Our DNA is always electrified and, long-term, electric,” says Kai Vogler, VP of sales and marketing, who nominated the solid middle class income of Australians as one reason the country was chosen as a launch market just four years after the brand surfaced in Europe.

“When we establish ourselves as a plug-in hybrid and electric brand I think that is also something that fits to Australia because the projections for electric mobility here are positive.”

Focus on performance, design

Cupra global head Wayne Griffiths was in Australia for the local launch of the brand and says the company is honing in on a specific part of the market.

“We want to do emotional, sexy cars that are fun to drive in an electrified world,” he says, pointing to design and driving enjoyment as pillars of Cupra.

“There’s a generation of consumers out there that are looking for different brands than their parents or grandparents have driven.”

He says Cupra is aiming to sandwich itself between mainstream and luxury brands, with prices hovering around the $60K mark.

“We want to be above the mass segment, not miles away so 5 per cent [on pricing] … but not in the premium segment,” says Griffiths.

“We want to be the brand for the younger customers.

“Within the Volkswagen Group we want to be the conquest brand, the brand with the highest conquest.”

“We respect Tesla”: Cupra

Griffiths says there are no direct competitors to the Cupra brand given the positioning it is aiming for.

But without mentioning their names he hints that Tesla and Polestar have done a good job muscling in on a busy market dynamic.

“There’s one out there doing a very good job already and there’s another one emerging new brand at the moment,” says Griffiths.

When asked specifically about Tesla, he said: “We have respect for Tesla. They made a huge step.”

Electric the focus for Cupra

It’s EVs emerging as the core tech for Cupra moving forward. The company plans to only be selling EVs by 2030.

Griffiths says Cupra will “hopefully get to a relevant market share, which would be around 5 per cent of the electric market”.

The company suggests it will sell maybe 1000 or 2000 EVs annually in 2023 and 2024 as part of that plan.

“We need to be relevant, otherwise we’re just a niche player,” says Griffiths. “We don’t want to be that.

Early in 2023 it plans to have the Born electric hatchback on sale here and it’ll only initially be offered with the larger 77kWh battery pack and the e-Boost system that can briefly boost the maximum power from 150kW to 170kW.

Utilising the architecture and electrical system of the Volkswagen ID.3, the Cupra Born is planned to undercut the sales leading Tesla Model 3 on pricing.

Cupra Australia’s head of product and planning, Jeff Schafer, said: “I think that price will be pretty similar to what you pay for a similarly-powered Cupra Leon”.

READ MORE: Cupra reveals Leon and Formentor plug-in prices

That Leon sells from $56,990 for a 180kW version with a 2.0-litre turbo engine, $64,990 for a 221kW version of the same engine or $65,990 for the Leon VZe plug-in hybrid that uses a 1.4-litre turbo and electric motor to make a combined 180kW.

“You’re looking at in the high-50s, low-60s [for the Born],” says Shafer, adding that it would give people the choice between ICE, PHEV or BEV. “It should be a choice of petrol or plug-in hybrid or electric.”

Production of Australian-bound Borns will commence in Germany in November ahead of arrivals early in 2023.

By 2025 the company wants to be selling the upcoming UrbanRebel and Tavascan, two of the new breed as the company works towards its 2030 EV-only target.

Building the Cupra brand

For the remainder of 2022, though, the Cupra aim is to settle the brand in and build awareness and momentum.

It can be a long slog, as sibling Volkswagen-owned brand Skoda knows; Skoda has been on sale in Australia since 2007 and in 2021 commanded 0.9 percent of the market.

Cupra says it has taken about 12,000 expressions of interest and currently has “a few hundred” orders.

There are 600 Cupras already built and either in Australia or currently on the way and the company says it will have enough stock to satisfy demand. It plans to sell 1600 cars locally for the remainder of 2022 but plans to build to around 7000 cars annually over the next couple of years.

“We will secure enough production at least to protect Australia for the launch phase,” says Griffiths when asked about supply. “Even with all the supply difficulties we have around semi-conductors the Ukraine impact and so-on.”

He says Cupra “made a strategic decision for us that Australia is an important market”.

As much as anything it’s a chance to learn from an established car market known for its intense competition.