Local trademark proves accurate as Cupra CEO inadvertently confirms Raval name for upcoming pint-size electric SUV
The production version of the Cupra UrbanRebel concept will indeed wear the ‘Raval’ nameplate when it launches globally mid-decade, Cupra’s global CEO Wayne Griffiths has inadvertently confirmed.
Griffiths was addressing Australian media in a local roundtable interview this week when he accidentally confirmed the name while clarifying comments he’d made previously about the apparent driver involvement disparities between the Cupra Born electric hot hatch, which arrives in Australia next month, and upcoming production-spec UrbanRebel.
“I wasn’t referring to the Born as the alternative, I was referring to other manufacturers out there that market electric cars purely as a rational argument on the basis of sustainability and so on.
“We want to prove that electric cars can be emotional, sexy, fun to drive and not only in the case of the UrbanRebel… I think we did a pretty good job with the Born as well.
“When you look at how the Born is differentiated to its brother and sister cars in the Volkswagen Group on the same platform [such as the VW ID.3], I think our engineers did a great job.
“My comparison wasn’t ‘a sexy, emotional Raval against a boring Born’ – both of them are sexy and emotional.”
Griffiths didn’t bat an eyelid at the slip-up and continued on with his response before later reaffirming the UrbanRebel wouldn’t be called the UrbanRebel when it hits production, poking fun at the situation to see if anyone noticed.
“We’re bringing in new cars, and they’ll have new names,” he said.
“The Tavascan is a new car so it has a new name – there wasn’t a Tavascan before the Tavascan, and there wasn’t a Terramar before the Terramar.
“The UrbanRebel, that’s not going to be called UrbanRebel, it’s going to be called something similar – similar or a different name… lot of speculation at the moment what name that will be, but there will always be emotional Spanish names.”
The Raval nameplate has been associated with the UrbanRebel concept for a while now, with the Cupra CEO having previously teased the production nameplate would be one close to brand’s heart and directly derived from ‘UrbanRebel’.
In a subtle easter egg for trainspotters, the UrbanRebel’s press images were shot at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, which is located in the heart of Barcelona’s Raval district.
The icing on the cake came late last year when carsales discovered Seat had filed a trademark application for the Raval nameplate with IP Australia, following similar submissions in other key markets.
Smaller than the Born and adopting a contrasting front-wheel drive configuration, the Cupra Raval light electric SUV will more than likely be revealed sometime next year ahead of a 2025 local introduction.
Griffiths defended the Raval’s move to front-drive, saying it is a better option for smaller cars and the tighter urban environments they tend to frequent.
“However, the most exciting thing for me in Cupra is neither the rear-wheel nor the front-wheel, but a four-wheel [drive],” he mused.
“That would be the one to get to, because then you can really have fun – when the thing does drive like a go-kart.
“So that’s something I’ve always been pushing and I haven’t managed to yet, because it’s very difficult on the MEB-21 platform to get a four-wheel drive, but that is something I would really be wanting to have.”
Just such a thing was previewed by the initial UrbanRebel concept shown in September 2021, which was awash with wings, aero features and performance-minded hardware including a dual-motor drivetrain good for up to 320kW and a 0-100km/h time of 3.2 seconds.
The design was subsequently toned down from a racing concept to the familiar sexy crossover we saw in mid-2022, the production version of which is being developed in tandem with the Volkswagen ID.1.
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Keyword: Cupra UrbanRebel will be called Cupra Raval