The day on the calendar is Thursday, April 9. Cupra will present the Raval model, the first 100% electric car designed and manufactured at the Seat plant in Martorell. It is the tangible result of a Volkswagen group plan to electrify mobility in Spain and which, despite presenting its first fruit, still holds many future uncertainties.

Volkswagen and Cupra will recall a total of 94,000 electric cars, manufactured between February 7, 2022, and August 23, 2024, in the case of Volkswagen models, and between February 7, 2022, and April 21, 2024, in the case of Cupra models, due to a problem detected with the battery module of the electric cars Cupra Born and Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.Buzz.Although no fire cases have been reported, affected units can register incidents in the battery pack, which generate a warning on the dashboard and a significant reduction in the vehicle's autonomy, and in extreme cases can ultimately result in a thermal overload that causes the batteries to catch fire.This incident, detected by the German vehicle approval authority (KBA), can be resolved through a check at an official dealership, where, based on a software update of the vehicle, the actual condition of each battery module can be thoroughly analyzed. In case any module is found to be operating irregularly, it will be replaced with a new one, without the inspection and possible replacement incurring any cost for the customers.Cupra sources have confirmed that this incident may affect around 500 registered Cupra Born units currently in circulation in Spain, and they recommend that customers do not charge the batteries above 80% of their capacity and do so outdoors before the car has been checked by the brand's technical service. However, the first reports indicate that a total of 19,500 units of the Cupra Born manufactured between February 2022 and April 2024 have been sold worldwide. In fact, the first three units that reported this incident were three Cupra Borns manufactured in 2023 and operating in Australia, which in early January of the same year, coinciding with the Australian summer, overheated the battery modules and caused small fires in the car.At this point, it is worth noting that all affected models (the Cupra Born and the Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.Buzz) have been manufactured at the German plant in Zwickau, where the Audi Q4 e-tron is also produced. However, unlike the rest of the models, Audi's electric car has not been recalled and does not appear to suffer from the same issue as the Volkswagen and Cupra cars.An electric leadership still to consolidate

Although the registered incident is not serious and that the official Volkswagen and Cupra services can resolve it with a software reprogramming and the replacement of faulty modules, it is clear to everyone that this recall catches the Volkswagen group at a delicate moment. And it is that, despite Volkswagen becoming the main manufacturer of electric cars in 2025, the sales figures for these models are still far from the objectives set in 2019, when the new electric strategy of the Lower Saxony group was presented.

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Seat-Cupra achieved a turnover of 15,115 million euros in 2025, 5.1% more than the previous year and a record figure for the company. During the past year it sold 586,300 cars5% more than the previous year and also a record figure. But despite these good sales and revenue results, the company's net profit remained at only 40.9 million euros, whereas a year earlier it had exceeded 522 million euros.

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The Spanish brands Seat and Cupra, which belong to the German Volkswagen Group, saw their operating profit plummet to just one million euros in 2025, down from 633 million euros in 2024, a 99.8% decrease. This figure was revealed on Tuesday during the Volkswagen Group's results presentation, ahead of the detailed results for Seat and Cupra to be released on Thursday. The decline, as Seat already indicated in its third-quarter results presentation, is due to tariffs on the Cupra Tavascán model, which is manufactured in China, as well as higher product costs, despite an increase in sales volume. Seat and Cupra's revenue improved to 15.272 billion euros (+5.1% compared to 2024). And car sales for both brands rose last year to 657,000 units (+3.1% compared to 2014), figures that include the Audi A1 (manufactured in Martorell) and thanks to the success of Cupra models, especially the electric Born and Tavascán.

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Just seven years after being born as an independent brand, Cupra has made the overtaking in its parent brand, Seat, which has a 75-year history. The Cupra brand sold 328,800 cars in 2025, 32.5% more than the previous year's 248,100 units. Seat, meanwhile, sold 257,400 units, 17% less than the previous year. However, the combined sales of the two Seat group brands reached a record high: 586,300 cars sold, 5.1% more than in 2024, when sales were 558,200, surpassing the previous record of 574,000 units set in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The goal is set. After four years of transformation, next year The first electric cars manufactured at the Seat plant in Martorell will be released to the market.The company aims to reach a production capacity of 600,000 cars per year at this plant, half of which (300,000) will be electric. The first electric model to roll off the assembly line at this factory will be the Cupra Raval, which will go on sale starting in March of next year, followed by the Volkswagen ID. Polo. The final step in electrifying the plant was taken this Friday with the inauguration of the battery assembly plant, in which the company has invested €300 million. This investment is part of the factory's electrification plan. It has cost 3 billion euros, as part of the 10 billion euro package from Seat and the Volkswagen group in Spain. to manufacture electric cars. Seat has also led the Volkswagen Group in the electrification of its smaller and more popular models, which, in addition to the Cupra Raval and the Volkswagen ID. Polo, also includes the Skoda Epiq and the Volkswagen ID. Cross, which will be manufactured at the German group's plant in Landaben (Navarra).

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Although Seat, Cupra's parent company, has been manufacturing its cars in Catalonia for 75 years, it had never before included the Catalan language option among those available for operating the infotainment system and other vehicle features. Albert Cuesta, a technologist and contributor to ARA, He had been battling there for almost a decade.Internal sources from the brand They had told him, after commissioning a study, Despite being a technologically possible option, the Volkswagen group's decision was to offer only infotainment options in the official languages of the main European markets, even though some of these languages had fewer speakers than Catalan.

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The Cupra Raval will be one of the most important cars of 2026, and the Baix Llobregat-based brand has already confirmed the price of the entry-level version of its electric model, which will be the cheapest in the Cupra lineup. The Raval shares the electric platform debuted by the Volkswagen ID. Polo, which will also be manufactured in Martorell, but unlike the latter, it will have a slightly sportier setup (15 millimeters lower body, stiffer suspension, electronic differential on the front wheels, and more responsive steering) that should justify its aspirational price.

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Jaume Puig's move to become director of the Catalan investment group GVC Gaesco and the changes at the top of Seat are the main executive moves among the business community this week, in which Caja de Ingenieros ratified a new term for its president, Félix Masjuan. Also noteworthy are the appointments at Eroski, Lorena Canals, and Culmia.

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Sales at Seat – with its two brands, Seat and Cupra – continued to grow during the first nine months of this year, but both profitability and profits plummeted, according to data released by the Martorell-based automaker. Sales increased by 4.1 percent year-on-year in the first nine months, reaching 439,500 vehicles, and the company's revenue grew by 6.9 percent to €11.2 billion. Despite this growth, the company's operating profit plummeted by 96.2 percent, settling at just €16 million. Furthermore, the return on sales was a meager 0.1 percent, 3.8 percentage points lower than in the same period of the previous year. This profitability decline occurred even though the Cupra brand, which offers a higher profit margin than Seat, contributed more significantly to the increase in car sales. In fact, Cupra grew by 37%, reaching a record 245,300 units, while deliveries for the Seat brand fell by 20.1% to 194,200 units.

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Few could have imagined the huge success of Cupra when, in 2018, this high-performance subsidiary broke away from Seat to become an aspirational brand, barely positioned in the market segment between mainstream and premium manufacturers, becoming the youthful entry-level brand to the sports cars of Audi or Porsche. Seven years later, and despite the shocks caused by the pandemic, the semiconductor crisis, geostrategic problems in Ukraine and Palestine, and rising raw material prices, Cupra celebrates the rollout of its one millionth model from the Martorell plant, becoming one of the most successful and fastest-growing European brands of recent years.

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After the surprise announcement on March 31 that Wayne Griffiths, the former CEO and face of Seat and Cupra, was leaving, the company finally officially has a new CEO for both brands. Likewise, the Infrastructure Advisory Council of Catalonia has welcomed a new president, and the Catalan footwear company Munich has hired a new general manager.

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The Cupra Formentor VZ5 is not a completely new model: the 2021 model year Cupra has already produced a limited edition of 7,000 units of this exclusive model. And it blew us away after our in-depth test drive. A fantastic model that uses the 2.5 TFSI 5-cylinder gasoline engine found in the Audi RS models, paired with a DSG dual-clutch automatic transmission and the 4Drive all-wheel drive system, thus taking advantage of the best of the technologies and engines available to this model.

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The Seat plant in Martorell played a more prominent role than ever before in the Volkswagen Group's presentation at the IAA Mobility, the Munich motor show. The event, attended by top representatives of the German consortium—including the German consortium's chief executive, Oliver Blume—began with the world premiere of the first two electric models to be manufactured in Baix Llobregat: the Cupra Raval and the Volkswagen ID Polo. This was followed by the presentation of cars from other group brands, such as those to be produced at the Volkswagen plant in Landaben (Navarra), two electric models also based on the group's compact urban platform: the Volkswagen ID Cross and the Skoda Epiq.

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Seat doesn't yet have any affordable electric models in its commercial portfolio, and the Volkswagen Group's roadmap doesn't foresee any, at least in the near future. It's true that Seat did have an electric version of the Mii between 2019 and 2022. It was an affordable urban vehicle with 82 hp and a range of 260 kilometers, manufactured at the Slovak plant in Bratislava, but it was a virtual copy of the Volkswagen Up! and the Skoda Citigo. It happened in history without much fanfare and with very modest sales figures.

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Cupra has done it again. The new Tindaya—named after a volcano on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura—is the culmination of the brand's solo journey to separate itself from Seat and build its own identity, and aims to follow in the footsteps of the success of the Formentor, Born, Terramar, and Tavascan. But let's get down to brass tacks: the Tindaya is the prototype of a future Cupra electric model, previewing the Baix Llobregat brand's future technical solutions, design, and visual identity.

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Cupra rules out entering the United States market for the moment, as planned, due to the new situation in international trade. "[Leaving the US market] was a very tough but very mature decision," acknowledged the interim president of Seat and Cupra, Markus Haupt, in a meeting with journalists in Munich, although he was open to the possibility of returning to the market in the future. "We're not throwing in the towel," he added. However, the company's top executive has strengthened the brand's global focus, which is already present in fifty countries, and is already in talks to enter the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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Cupra will not be launching in the United States in 2030, as the brand's former CEO, Wayne Griffiths, had predicted. The new international landscape, marked by uncertainties related to the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on European products, and Seat's commercial results, with a 90% drop in operating profit in the first six months of the year, are the two factors that explain the decision of the brand's new management.

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Cupra continues to advance its roadmap to strengthen the aspirational brand from Baix Llobregat with new models. After naming some of its latest cars the Tavascan, Terramar, Formentor, Raval, and Born, and using the Tarraco name for a family SUV that Seat recently discontinued, on May 6, the Martorell-based company registered several trade names with the European Union (EU) intellectual property office in Spain.

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When Luca de Meo, Wayne Griffiths' predecessor at the helm of Seat, was appointed CEO of the Catalan brand in 2015—ten years ago—Seat was in a very difficult situation. At that time, Seat was a completely loss-making brand, posting losses year after year since 2008, coinciding with the bursting of the real estate bubble that originated in the United States and hit the Baix Llobregat company hard, dragging down three different presidents in six years.

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