Cupra plots staggering sales growth, Australia included

The Volkswagen Group’s sporty Spanish spinoff Cupra is plotting mega sales growth, underpinned by the rollout of three brand new electrified vehicles due by 2025.

What kind of growth? Well, since launching as a standalone brand in 2018 – it was previously a mere division of SEAT – Cupra has sold some 200,000 cars, mostly being tweaked versions of SEAT staples such as the Ateca and Leon.

The brand sold a record 79,300 cars in 2021 – up 190 per cent on 2020 – with the Formentor (Cupra’s first bespoke car without a SEAT equivalent) the most popular model with 54,600 units sold.

But its sales target in the mid-term is 500,000 cars per year, as outlined by CEO Wayne Griffiths, with its current stable of brand-unique cars (said Formentor crossover and the newer Born EV) to be joined by the Terramar, Tavascan, and UrbanRebel by 2025.

”In the midterm, our aim is to deliver 500,000 cars per year and push forward with our international expansion into new markets as well as entering new segments,” Mr Griffiths said.

As well as the near-doubling of its product range, this goal thereby requires a roughly six-fold escalation in Cupra sales over the next few years. No minor task…

Cupra sees Australia as a key growth market as it seeks to expand outside of Europe, and will launch mid-year with a range comprising the Leon, Ateca and Formentor. The Born will join the range in early 2023.

“We see Australia as a big step testing our ability to make Cupra global,” Mr Griffiths said recently. “It’s an important step toward the globalisation [and a] real opportunity to make Cupra global, one perhaps we never had with Seat.”

Want to read more about Cupra? See the links to recent coverage below.

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