How Seat gave birth to Cupra

Flagship trim level becomes standalone brand at a slick launch event. Is there method behind the madness, asks Phil McNamara

SEAT IS SPINNING off its Cupra trim level as a brand in its own right. The new logo resembles two crossed harpoons, and it will spearhead seven high-performance cars over the next three years. The first Cupra is a 296bhp, four-wheel-drive Ateca capable of 0-62mph in 5.4sec; 200bhp Cupra Ibiza and Cupra Arona models using Polo GTI power follow in 2019.

What will mark out these Cupras? The cars will be ‘unique, sophisticated and performance-oriented’, to quote the neat if painfully literal set of USPs. ‘Cupras are special, individual cars that are in sophisticated in their materials, finish and colours. And they will always remain performance-focused, through driveability, handling, sound and everything associated with that,’ says Wayne Griffiths, sales and marketing chief.

But why is Seat investing the effort and money to establish a hitherto trim level as a separate badge? It’s all about the Seat brand’s elasticity and rejection levels. The Cupra Ateca will likely cost around £35k-£40k – a lofty price point where Seat would find the air painfully thin – though box-fresh Cupra might find it equally challenging to succeed at that level. But executives imply the company has to hoodwink the haters.

‘Seat has made big progress as a brand,’ says company president Luca de Meo. ‘But we also have an image problem, with a certain level of rejection. You can have the best product in the world, but some consumers are more image and brand sensitive and won’t take one of our cars. So Cupra is starting from scratch… with the idea that maybe you can attract customers that might not buy a Seat, but might buy a Cupra.’

Last year, Seat told 10,000 Leon Cupra models. The short-term goal is to double sales under the new brand, generating higher revenues to

help Seat introduce costlier plug-in hybrid and driver assistance technologies from the top down. The target customers are independently minded 40/50-somethings who don’t aspire to a trad German premium car: Cupras will be priced between them and the mainstream.

The elephant in the room, however, is the inextricable link between Seat and Cupra. While Cupras get bespoke grilles, badges, bodykits and interior finishes, the fundamental body design and cabin architecture will be shared with donor Seats. And the Cupras will be sold through a fifth of the existing Seat dealer network, though in areas given a Cupra look and feel, and with a focus on making the customer feel special – the

comesnd playbook for Ford’s Vignale premium offshoot. Further dilution from the intention that regular customers will be able to specify Cupra flourishes for their mainstream Seats.

Cupra is working with good raw materials. But surely Seat would have been better keeping the halo versions of each car within the mothership, to help slowly but surely ratchet up Seat’s brand equity, as Ferdinand Piëch did with Audi and Carlos Tavares has pledged to do with DS Automobiles.

Instead Seat’s management is chasing a quick win, one that Luca de Meo is certain will happen. ‘I have experience of doing a couple of things like this, it works, it always works,’ says the man who revived the Abarth brand at Fiat (see chart above).

The seven-model rush is bound to include the next-gen Leon, logically the forthcoming seven-seat Tarraco SUV, plus a BMW X4-style mash-up of SUV and coupe, if a sketch flashed up during the brand’s launch is an indication. ‘We’ll go further and launch a car purely as a Cupra,’ hints sales and marketing chief Griffiths. That sounds like Cupra’s most instantly compelling and authentic proposition.

After all, where does a trim level end, and a brand begin? With Cupra it’s not yet entirely clear.