Cupra has found its biggest success here in Australia with the Formentor SUV, but the brand wants to push into the electric car space sooner rather than later. Enter its first full electric SUV, the Tavascan.
Following in the somewhat established Cupra modus operandi of building ‘style focused’ cars based on Volkswagen Group platforms, the Tavascan is a small SUV based on the Volkswagen MEB platform for electric cars, making it a cousin to the VW ID.4, ID.5 and Skoda Enyaq.
While no secret for years, the Tavascan is now officially revealed with specifications confirmed, having previously been only seen as a design concept with production flagged for a later date.
Australia will also see the Tavascan, though timing and availability is yet to be determined.
The Tavascan will arrive with at least one of two drivetrain options, a 210kW base model with a single-motor drivetrain or an AWD version with 250kW, both using a 77kWh battery giving its longest range variants up to 550km of electric driving.
The brand says it’s able to charge to 80 per cent from below 10 in “just under half an hour” thanks to a 135kW maximum charging rate used by the MEB platform.
More specific features will likely be determined by market, but Cupra says its multimedia screen for the Tavascan is the largest ever in any of its models at 15 inches. It also uses a Sennheiser 12-speaker sound system for the first time.
Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths says the Tavascan is the model that represents everything the brand is aiming to be, making its reveal a milestone for the company.
“Back when we presented the Tavascan concept at the IAA in Frankfurt 2019, it was our dream car – a manifesto for everything we wanted Cupra to become,” said Griffiths. “Since then, we’ve kept believing that if we dream it, we can create it.”
Griffiths had already confirmed the brand wouldn’t leave Australia off the table for any of its models, saying markets like ours are more important to a brand like Cupra that’s not already established elsewhere.
“I think Volkswagen Group and Skoda, because they’re already global and have a lot of other markets, they probably don’t give Australia the priority, but for us, (it’s) high priority,” he told CarsGuide in late 2021.
“And we can’t just come with the Cupra Formentor. We need to have the Cupra electric cars – the Cupra Born, the Cupra Tavascan and the Cupra UrbanRebel – ready for Australia and ready for the future.”
CarsGuide has contacted Cupra Australia for more up-to-date details regarding the Tavascan’s Australian launch.
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