It wasn't exactly a secret that Spanish car maker SEAT was going to use the Cupra name as a separate brand for its performance models, but Thursday saw the official launch of Cupra as the performance arm of SEAT with its own individual identity. And as well as offering performance versions of existing SEAT models, the new division of the company also has the potential to produce its own standalone models in the future.
Although the new brand won't have its own dealerships separate from SEAT, it will have dedicated floor space in around 260 specially selected SEAT dealerships all around Europe. Plenty of other manufacturers have their own separate luxury and performance divisions, but not too many of them go as far as SEAT is doing to develop an almost entirely separate brand purely focused on performance models. Nissan has Nismo and Ford has ST models, but they are all part of the main brand and not sectioned off on their own.
SEAT President Luca de Meo said of the move: "Cupra is a big opportunity for SEAT, for our customers and for the business. The whole project has surfaced as the dream of a group of people who were looking for a way to conquer a new group of car lovers."
The first model the new brand will offer is the Cupra Ateca, which will be a fairly unique model as it will be a performance version of an SUV, and that's been pretty much the preserve of premium brands up to this point.
But once Cupra has exhausted the supply of SEAT models on which to do its performance magic, the motorsport-influenced brand could then start developing its own models. SEAT's head of sales and marketing, Wayne Griffiths, said at the Cupra launch event, according to Auto Express: "We need to expand our product portfolio on Cupra. Obviously we have the Cupra Ateca, and we're looking at other models [Ibiza and Arona], although these aren't confirmed just yet. There are other cars in the SEAT range and others to come in the years ahead. And who knows; it could even go so far as a car that exists purely as a Cupra car, at least initially."
Over the next three years Cupra plans to launch seven models, all of which will come with a four-year warranty that's a full 12 months more than comes with SEAT models at the moment.
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