Seat and Cupra are also electric
The Volkswagen Group surprised the world a few years ago with a decision that no one expected: Cupra would become an independent brand. This announcement took place in 2018 and, three years later, the native firm already has its own list of vehicles.
However, all its members, with the exception of the Cupra Formentor, are based on Seat models. Is this a bad thing or should it be viewed as an outrage? Not at all, and especially if we start from the premise that we like seats. But this situation that does force us to consider how much one or another firm is worth.
Or what is the same; why choose one or the other and what differences can we find between Cupra and Seat for what are electric cars, the new generation. Because if; Although both brands have some blood tiesat least in what was the birth of the second, we find similar models and technologies, but with details that differentiate it.
How are both brands?
But to know them you have to start from the beginning. In the case of Cupra, the subsidiary brand of Seat began its journey with the Cupra Ateca, the first product of the independent firm. It was about the sportier version of the Seat Ateca that hides in its entrails a 2.0-liter engine and 300 hp.
It is the same car that has remained the only model in its early days, until the arrival of the Cupra León and the Cupra Formentor, the latter being the first Cupra model that is not based on a Seat. And with these launches, the Cupra brand intends to make a place for itself in the market that is more focused on sportsmanship and exclusivity. And it is precisely this that they have tried with Cupra, to make it more exclusive, to take advantage of its sporty and unique character. Seat is a volume brand, it makes many cars, and that reduces exclusivity.
With the independence of Cupra, it is possible to give strength to the brand, making its products more exclusive, one of the main reasons why Cupra separated from Seat. A philosophy of the ‘premium’ brand that has completely changed in this new stage towards electric cars. In fact, the first of its new generation is the recently launched Born 100% electrified (here its technical sheet).
On the part of Seat, we have to say that, for the moment, the only EV is the one called el-Born (not to be confused with Cupra’s ‘Born’), although both are electric. However, there are differences between the two cars, especially with regard to the second. Before it was the Mii Electric, although it is no longer sold.
These are their differences
Both are the great potentials in this segment, although Martorell has always been directed towards a more frequent field than the one we can find today with Cupra, especially in the field of electrics.
Thus, the mere fact that the one chosen to present its then new brand was the Ateca should already lead us to the idea that Cupra’s claim, as we have seen now with the Born. This is none other than going far beyond the affordable and racy, and very youthful, sports cars that were previously built on the Ibiza and the Lion.
Another of its great distances we see in the type of user to which they want to lend. And it is that, in the field of electric cars, both Cupra and Seat will continue to make sports vehicles. Now, the objective of Seat, in his case, is to expand his line of business. The Cupra company no longer thinks only of creating sports versions for all budgets, but above all of selling cars very well equipped, with many details, and sometimes exotic and expensive materials. It is what is seen in the el-Born 2022 of the Spanish that, although it has certain similarities with the ‘premium’ level, its benefits are somewhat lower, perhaps the point that makes us see what one brand is like and another.