Inside the fizzy world of Europe’s fastest-growing car brand
With side projects like a zero-sugar soda and luggage line with Jaden Smith, Cupra wants to rock the car world – without selling too many cars
[BARCELONA] Before you drive a Cupra, you can literally get a taste of it. Just pop open a can of Cupra by Vichy Catalan. The zero-sugar soda tries to bottle the brand’s Mediterranean DNA and rebellious spirit, and has a gingery lime kick.
Remarkably, the fizzy drink didn’t spring from Cupra’s marketing minds, but from the department that decides things like colour and engine options.
“That was someone from the product management team saying ‘I wanna work on the taste of Cupra’,” Cecilia Taieb, Cupra’s global director of communications, told The Business Times. “And then he developed this. It’s actually super funny because now you can buy it in any supermarket, and we sold more than we expected, you know?”
Barcelona-based Cupra isn’t trying to muscle in on Red Bull’s turf, but to broaden its cultural relevance. Likewise, it has partnerships with FC Barcelona and the America’s Cup, and launched Cupra Design House in April.
More creative side project than business unit, it gives its car designers a chance to team up with stylists from other fields. Coming up: a collaboration with Harper Collective, the luggage firm co-founded by Jaden Smith.
Head of design Jorge Diez told BT that Cupra’s desire to be different means shunning the car industry. “I always tell my team, don’t look at what the other car companies are doing,” he said. “Do your own thing.”
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Diez even sees seven-year-old Cupra’s lack of history as a plus. “We don’t have heritage and sometimes for design this could be an advantage, because you can think freely about the future, you can create actually what you feel is the best for the product.”
Cupra has a startup mentality because it is the only one of Volkswagen Group’s 10 brands that it actually created itself. It started life as the go-faster division of Seat, a chronically underperforming Spanish subsidiary that VW acquired in 1986. The name itself comes from “cup racing”, and for years it appeared as a badge on souped-up Seat models.
But VW spun off Cupra just as the broader car industry was mulling over the idea of trimming brands. So far, the gamble has paid off.
It sold 14,400 cars in its first year, and sales have since grown by 17 times, giving it bragging rights as Europe’s fastest-growing car brand, and powering Seat to a record 633 million euros in operating profit last year. Along the way, it has also managed to woo more youthful drivers. Cupra’s customers are typically 10 to 12 years younger than the average new car buyer in Europe.
“I’m lucky, because I don’t have anything to protect. We’ve only been in the world for seven years,” Taieb said. “Say if suddenly I do a sex toy of Cupra, there won’t be all these people that say, ‘Oh, my God, you’re killing the brand!’ No. We can fail, wake up again, and go.”
While Taieb likes to play up Cupra’s rebellious spirit, she admits that VW’s financial, manufacturing and technical clout, plus its extensive dealer network, made its rapid growth possible. Yet, she sees an upper limit on Cupra’s size – 500,000 cars a year, or double its current volume, at which point the brand would be too mainstream.
“If you have a big family and you want to go from A to Z with a car, don’t buy a Cupra,” Taieb said. “Cupra is not for everybody to like, but for some people to love.”
Much like its gingery drink, Cupra is meant to be an acquired taste.
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