Electric car Cupra Raval: VW ID.2 offshoot has a name

Brand-loyal Volkswagen customers still have to be patient: the battery-electric small car ID.2 is not expected to come onto the market until 2025. What is certain, however, is that he will not be left alone. A seedling will come from the Seat sub-brand Cupra. The name is revealed two years before the start: Raval. As is so often the case with Seat, there is a local connection. Raval is the name of a neighborhood in Barcelona that strategists have identified as one of the “most surprising parts” of the Spanish metropolis.

Orientation on the VW ID.2

Technically, the Cupra Raval will be closely based on the VW ID.2. The customer will have the choice between 40 and 60 kWh in the battery, the electric motor of the starter model will have 166 kW. Further engines are likely to follow in order to cover different requirements in this regard. The promise of being able to charge both batteries from 10 to 80 percent in 20 minutes is exciting. The smaller version of the memory will have LFP cells, the larger version will probably have NMC cells.

No successor to the VW e-Up

Dimensions and equipment will also be very similar to those of the VW. At around 4.05 m, the Raval is about as long as a current Seat Ibiza. The Raval is not a successor to the Seat Mii, Skoda Citigo and VW Up, because these three were significantly smaller. It is uncertain whether VW will leave this segment completely. On the one hand there is a demand on the market, on the other hand the margin for microcars is quite small. With a VW ID.1, i.e. a significantly smaller and cheaper electric car, the group would hardly achieve the desired sales margin even if it distributed the platform across the group.

This is exactly what will happen with the models that are actually foreseeable. VW ID.2 and Cupra Raval will definitely get an offshoot of Skoda as an internal competitor, even a Seat on this platform would be conceivable. It is rather unlikely that Audi will make another attempt to expand its range downwards. But it should be at least three years before all foreseeable derivatives of the ID.2 are on the market. Sufficient time to consider whether a prettily small electric car with the Audi label could round off this platform.

Seat and Cupra off to a good start to the year

Seat can, however, bask in the current success. In the first quarter of 2022, the operating profit was just 5 million euros, compared to 144 million between January and March this year. Compared to the previous year, the increase in sales was 48 percent. Seat and its sub-brand Cupra together have a turnover of 3.6 billion euros. Cupra played its part: in the first quarter of 2023, 46,600 vehicles with this label were sold, 83 percent more than in the same period last year. The Spanish Volkswagen brands will need the money because the launch of the Cupra Raval is a financial feat. Before the start of production of the series model, Seat plans to invest around three billion euros, including in production in Martorell.

(mfz)