Cupra is cooking up something BIG for Australia, and we have America to thank for it

Cupra’s next generation of models will likely include a new US-inspired vehicle that could also pay real dividends here in Australia, with an new and all-electric SUV that would spearhead its American launch billed as a global model that would also launch in our market.

The VW Group brand only launched here last year, with its Australian debut seen by some as a test case for its eventual launch in the USA. And for the latter, the brand concedes new US-flavoured models will be required.

“You can imagine that if we are looking to go to the US, then we need cars that that can work in the US,” Cupra’s global CEO, Wayne Griffiths, told CarsGuide.

Read More About Cupra

Cupra range pricing adjusted, with popular models now more expensive Green light for Red! 2023 Cupra Formentor VZx Rojo edition is available in any colour, as long as it's red Cupra set to unleash EV onslaught in Australia

“I think it would be a mistake, and a lot of manufacturers have made that mistake, to go with European-designed cars and try to make them work in the US because the US has specific requirements.

“So you're right that we would need a bigger car, and the bigger car would also have to be an SUV, I think, because that's what the US customers want.

“We wouldn't be looking at a pick-up or stuff like that — that's huge in the US — because the Volkswagen Group has just made announcements on huge investments in a new electric brand in the US for pick-ups, Scout, so I think that's something they will be doing.”

Mr Griffiths understandably kept product specifics close to his chest, but suggested the SUV would be built on VW Group’s incoming SSP (Scalable Systems Platform) architecture — an all EV platform that will be shared across all its brands and that should begin appearing between 2026 and 2028.

The timing ties with reports that Cupra’s US push is earmarked for around 2030, but it also opens the door - if only slightly - for the new model to arrive in Australia first, where the brand is already established.

“I guess it would be on the base of the next generation of electric cars, the SSP platform. Obviously (we're) looking to use as always — because on our own in the US is going to be really difficult to be viable — so we would be looking to use the Group in terms of platforms, and also using Group synergies in terms of manufacturing.

"But the car that we would do for the US would also be a great car for you guys in Australia, I think. It would be a global product."

While we don’t know exactly what the large SUV will be, we already know what it won’t be, and that is a luxury-focused family hauler that puts comfort ahead driving fun.

“I don't like the word luxury. Please don't use that word luxury for Cupra because we don't do luxury cars,” Mr Griffiths says.

“We have plenty of brands in the Volkswagen Group that do luxury and premium cars. We are not about luxury or premium or big. That's getting us into a real trap, and overlapping with other brands that we don't need and don't want.

“So it wouldn't be luxury. And what I said before, it needs to be a bigger car, it needs to be an SUV. That's what the US looks for.

“We’re certainly not luxury, certainly not premium. It would be very provocative in its design, and, as I said before, if we do a car, an additional model in that direction, then it would be a car that we would want to sell globally and not just in the US market.”