Frankfurt 2019: Cupra Tavascan design team reveal show car secrets
Cupra’s new concept SUV is both dramatic and unlike anything in the Seat line-up to date
Brand-new brand Cupra showed its second concept of 2019 in the shape of an all-electric four-door crossover coupé called Tavascan at the Frankfurt motor show, as it aims to forge a new identity more clearly separate from the Spanish Seat marque that bore it.
In a similar tactic to DS shifting away from Citroën, Cupra wants to move from being merely a chapter in Seat’s racing heritage history and more recently its sporty trim level, to a brand with its own visual cues, values and eventually clearly defined customers. Thus the Tavascan show car has its own Cupra badge, and bears no resemblance to existing Seat SUVs – unlike the earlier Formentor shown earlier in 2019.
It also seems to be moving away from just ‘go-faster’ design elements. “It’s still sporty,” lead interior designer Marc Franch stressed to Car Design News on the Cupra show stand, “but with this car we are also playing the sophistication card. The emotional aspect of the design is important and that’s reflected in the fluid exterior surfaces.”
Francesca Sangalli, Cupra’s head of colour and trim (and formerly at Mercedes’s now-closed Como studio) is clear about the brand’s intended customer base. “Our target is younger but still ‘auto’,” she explained in her pleasingly Italian-accented English. “Although the vehicle is electric we are not leaning towards ‘product design’. The first impression we hope people will have of this car is that it is not a Seat and hopefully go ‘wow’. Then there is a second impression with our interior details, the structural and technical real carbon fibre, the softness of our white leather seats and the copper accent lamelas.”
Size-wise, exact details were scarce in Cupra’s initial press material, but with the Tavascan’s coupé vibes and SUV height Franch suggested dimensions not far from a BMW X4. However, he was also quick to say that Cupra wasn’t chasing that exact market nor indeed treading on the toes of similar-sized and positioned models within the VW Group. “Cupra is not necessarily fully premium,” Franch continued to CDN, “the Group has other brands for that. It’s not pretending to be a competitor to Audi, but working in the gap between premium and mainstream.”
Sitting in the Tavascan’s show-car cabin, there was a certain sense of glamour not fully present in the press photos though, due to shiny surfaces and interesting lighting effects – including the high-pressure, ‘water-cut’ leather perforations in the door card through which a large OLED shone.
Various different media have reported that a production car is likely to result from this show car, and the official press release talks of sharing the flexible electric VW Group MEB platform, but Franch and Sangalli seemed to suggest that the Tavascan’s design at least, really was still testing the water before anything tangible follows. “This is a dream first,” said Sangalli with Franch backing up that sentiment. “We didn’t want to put handcuffs on ourselves at this point,” he added with passion. “After that, we’ll see.”