I spent a morning with Cupra’s CEO on the day Volkswagen’s world changed

I spent last Friday morning driving around Barcelona with Markus Haupt, CEO of Cupra and Seat, talking predominantly about the eight-year-old Spanish car brand Cupra, but also about a pivotal day for the entire Volkswagen Group, of which Seat and Cupra are part.

Haupt gave me an hour of his time on the day that news broke of Volkswagen’s huge restructuring plans, which reaffirmed Seat’s future for the next three years, after which a tricky decision needs to be made about the storied Spanish brand’s future.

Talking to Haupt, it’s clear that Cupra is a big part of the Volkswagen Group’s new push to compete in an ever-changing car world, with greater competition and myriad political challenges.

I’ve said before how I admire the new leadership across the Volkswagen Group, with people who have a refreshing honesty about the mistakes made in the past and a determination to forge a new path focused on clear values.

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Cupra, like Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda, is one of those brands that it’s now easy to understand with a clear place in the market. And like those other brands, Haupt is leading Cupra with a passion, an honesty and a drive that – I think – stands it in good stead for the future.

You’ll be able to read and see my full interview with Haupt soon on The Independent, but as a preview, I asked him what Cupra stands for: “I would say Cupra stands for a car brand that is different from the others,” he told me. “And with that we address a different kind of customer. We created Cupra to stand between the mass volume segment and the premium segment – we detected there was a sweet spot that was not really served. Where people that have a different personality that want to have something different. With Cupra we gave them the opportunity to have a car that fits to this: “I want to be different”.

“This is also when we design a new car, we always say, okay guys, we don’t want to be conventional, we don’t want to be mainstream because we have lots of mainstream. I think finding the specs that make the car different and everything starts of course with the design. If you have to choose one of the characteristics that is more relevant, design is number one for sure. And after design I would say it’s performance. And this is what we gave to the people with our brand.”

It’s certainly working with sales growing healthily, while in a world where the average age of a car buyer is well into middle age, Cupra buyers are slightly younger – something of a holy grail in the car business.

My journey chauffeuring Haupt from the city centre to Cupra HQ in Martorell just outside Barcelona was in the new Cupra Raval, a car that’s crucial to Cupra in a number of ways.

Unusually for the Volkswagen Group, Cupra has been able to lead on a new product family; the Raval is the sister car of the new Volkswagen ID. Polo, the ID. Cross and the Skoda Epiq. Yet the Raval has launched first and is built in the Martorell factory alongside the Polo and other Cupra and Seat models.

As I write this, I’m also looking at a Cupra Raval sitting on my driveway – don’t worry, it hasn’t stayed still for long. Although its proportions are supermini-sized, its matte green paint with Cupra copper accents, the slashes in its bodywork, innovative lighting signatures at the front and the back, and the way it sits lower to the ground than the ID. Polo mark it out as something with a bit of pizzazz.

The inside is just as dramatic with a clever light projection system across the doors and a wraparound light bar across the dash that makes the Raval like nothing else at night. My test car has all the bells and whistles, including plenty of premium kit, plus super-comfy and supportive sports seats with an innovative 3D knitted fabric on them.

The Raval drives nicely, too – not as firm in terms of ride as other Cupra models (although still a bit bumpy), but it feels sporty in the way that a Polo doesn’t (and shouldn’t) with plenty of performance and still decent efficiency, too.

The downside? My test car costs over £38,000 – you can get a Tesla Model 3 for less. But as Haupt told me, Cupra sits somewhere between the mainstream and premium.

Our conversation inevitably moved towards China – as every car chat seems to these days – and the challenges that the Volkswagen Group faces from the Far East have inevitably led to the restructuring and job losses that were announced last week.

However, from where I sit, I now see a Group that is ready for the challenge ahead, fitter and leaner than it has been for a while, and with a product line-up that will have many Chinese brands analysing – quickly – how they can match it.

For Cupra, though, I came away impressed by the way Haupt and his management team were doing things differently; from design to marketing and even retail. And the cars are definitely different.

Cupras certainly won’t be to everybody’s taste – if they were, the team wouldn’t be doing their jobs properly. But in a world where I find it hard to differentiate between so many of the new Chinese brands – and if I’m struggling, consumers will be struggling, too – I’m seeing a clear definition between Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Cupra that I haven’t seen for a while. When it comes to the Spanish brand, it’s becoming daringly different in everything it does – and I find that refreshing.

Where that leaves Seat remains to be seen. It’s still a brand with some value, and I’m not sure it’ll be one of those car brands to disappear off the face of the earth entirely. Maybe it could be reinvented – does the Volkswagen Group need an autonomous vehicle brand, for example? But it’ll be around for the next few years, that’s for sure.

In the meantime, Cupra is doing a fine job of showing us what Spanish culture, based around the city of Barcelona (one of my favourite cities in the world), really means. And I’m liking what I see.

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