This dramatic-looking creation, the Cupra UrbanRebel, is the first look at the model likely to lead the VW Group’s foray into even more affordable electric cars.
The concept was unveiled ahead of a physical unveiling at the Munich Motor Show next week and is set to preview the design language Cupra will use when it launches its smallest all-electric model in 2025. The show car is available as a. featured a motorsport model – hence the huge rear wing with race numbers on the end plates – but remove those elements and the overall shape is a guide to how Cupra’s designers will use the all-electric platform on a small car.
The profile shows a very low and short bonnet line and an extremely short front overhang – all elements designed to underline the fact that the proportions of the vehicle have not been compromised by the need for an internal combustion engine. It features a wraparound screen and “floating” roof graphic that hints at Cupra’s upcoming Tavascan – and the front-end treatment seems to be more than a nod to that model, too. The brand also claims the strong shoulders over the rear wheel arches are a reinterpretation of a styling cue from the existing Formentor SUV.
SEAT is currently leading the VW Group’s project for more affordable electric vehicles. The platform, known as MEB Entry, is designed for vehicles with a length of around four meters – roughly the same as a conventional supermini – and the concept follows this principle in that it is 4,080 mm long and five centimeters shorter than the current one SEAT Arona.
The show car’s roofline is significantly lower than that of the baby SUV, although it’s likely that at least part of that difference is due to aggressive lowering. There’s no evidence of a pair of rear doors on UrbanRebel – but given consumer trends, it seems more likely that the eventual production model will be a five-door hatchback.
Cupra says the UrbanRebel has 335 horsepower continuously and that it can produce up to 429 horsepower for a short period of time, delivering a 0-62 mph time of just 3.2 seconds. Those numbers – and what is likely a dual-engine configuration – are being scaled back significantly for the production car, which in its simplest rear-wheel drive form is unlikely to have much more than 200 horsepower.
Wayne Griffiths, CEO of SEAT, told us in the spring that his company’s Baby EV will be “the first car for an entry-level platform for various brands of the VW Group”. At the time, it was unclear whether the model would wear the higher quality Cupra badge or that of its cheaper stable companion. Now Griffiths says the concept is “a radical take on the company’s urban electric car due to hit the market in 2025”.
The confirmation that the vehicle will be a Cupra could be significant for the SEAT brand as a whole; There are currently no all-electric SEATs in the pipeline, despite the VW Group’s major advance in this direction and many major markets promise to ban vehicles with internal combustion engines by the end of the decade.
The car’s introduction as the Cupra is also likely to mean the first MEB Entry car won’t be sold at the project’s target price of just £ 17,000 in front of any government incentives. The brand’s positioning – north of VW but cheaper than Audi – means it will likely have one of the platform’s larger battery capacities and won’t have to compete with cheaper MEB-entry cars like the baby Skoda EV. Therefore, a starting value of more than £ 20,000 seems more likely.
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