The Cupra marque began as a sub-brand of VW’s Spanish subsidiary, SEAT. Then, it was spun-off as a separate, performance-oriented brand, and over the past few years, Cupra has had far better year-over-year sales increases than any other VW marque.
The many Cupra models are currently sold in Europe, Australia, and Mexico, and VW plans to bring them to The US by 2030. The Cupra models apparently borrow from both the VW and Audi parts bins, and their pricing will be placed above that of VW, and below the pricing of Audi models.
The fact that VW is trying to price the Cupra models in between their VW offerings and Audi offerings is… sort of… reminiscent of Ford’s strategy when they decided to market the Edsel, and we all know how that turned out.
But, if the emphasis is on performance, then maybe they will be successful. I think that VW’s biggest obstacle might be their reputation for reliability that is far below that of their Japanese competitors, so maybe there will be no mention of Cupra’s VW connection, even though these vehicles will be made in VW factories.
It might work for a while. Speaking of too many divisions, GM had Pontiac as their sport division, Buick and Oldsmobile as their second tier luxury brands, Cadillac as the top tier luxury brand, and Chevrolet as the division for the less affluent. That was the general rule but not a guarantee since Corvette is a Chevy.
