The Cupra UrbanRebel EV – revealed at last year's Munich motor show as a racy supermini with an outlandish, touring car-style aero package – has evolved into an ultra-compact urban SUV for production.
The UrbanRebel will be the firm's third all-electric production car, following the existing Volkswagen ID 3-based Cupra Born hatchback and dramatically styled 2024 Cupra Tavascan crossover into dealerships in 2025, and with similarly aggressive design cues that nod to Cupra's extant billing as the Volkswagen Group's accessible performance brand.
However, while the original concept highlighted that "racing is at the core of Cupra's DNA", the model revealed here is a much closer preview of the car that will go on sale in three years.
The UrbanRebel is the first of three technically identical entry-level EVs due from the VW Group, with closely related but differently styled siblings on the way from Volkswagen and Skoda. Together, the three cars essentially replace the Volkswagen E-Up, Skoda Citigo-e iV and Seat Mii Electric at the entry point into their respective manufacturers' growing EV line-ups.
The trio have long been promised to start from around the €20,000 (£17,000) mark, which would make them among the cheapest mainstream EVs on sale. But Cupra has confirmed that in line with its more upmarket brand positioning, the Urbanrebel will command a premium over its Volkswagen and Skoda siblings - potentially to the tune of roughly £25,000 when it lands.
All three will be built at a dedicated new factory in Martorell, Spain, and sit atop a specially adapted version of the MEB EV platform currently used by the majority of bespoke VW Group EVs (save for the J1-based Audi E-tron GT and Porsche Taycan). The chief differentiator over that familiar architecture is that the ‘Small MEB’, as it is called, is much shorter; as deployed here under the UrbanRebel, it gives a wheelbase of just 2600mm – roughly equidistant between that of the ID 3 and e-Up – with a view to enticing city-dwelling EV buyers and keeping costs down, while still giving room for four occupants.
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A good price point for a new EV, an indicator that the tech is becoming ubiquitous.
The design is pretty good, though too fussy for me.
I would imagine the £17k price was the target price at time of the project concept. The finished car will occupy the same area of the market when it finally goes on sale. It's an entry level car, and will probably be priced according to market conditions.
As a current Cupra owner, something like this does appeal. I'm pretty sure it'll certainly be more interesting visually than the equivalent VW
Even mentioning a price of £17,000 within this item shows no idea of current extortionate car prices, even for ICE vehicles. With an entry level Yaris already costing over £21,000, there's no way an EV from the VW stable is going to cost anywhere near £17,000.
Then there's the styling. Regarding new car designs, the closest I get to a positive comment these days is "that isn't as bad as a.....", rather than "that's a nice looking car".
I supposed there's only so much you can do with a bloated SUV body, but trying to be different shouldn't mean awkward looking or ugly.
I can't predict the future anymore than you think you know what VW can produce, tow years from now?, it's a best guess, two years from now Ev's will be two years further on, that's all I can surmise.
It's a fair comment to expect this to be priced way above £17k, you'd just about be able to buy a VW group petrol supermini for this, an Ibiza will start at over £17k and won't have anywhere near this Cupra's level of performance. So realistically, the quoted price seems very optimistic, but hey, we can but hope.
No-one can perfectly predict the future as you say, but this car costing way more than £17,000, even when adjusted for inflation by then, is about as safe a bet as someone can make given all the evidence of ridiculous levels of car price inflation in recent years and the absence of value for money, even before Covid and materials shortages.
The only way that price might not be so far off the mark is when the buying public, who are starting to wake up to huge car price inflation in recent times, and who are also experiencing the pain of the cost of living crisis, might stop, or significantly delay, buying new cars.
Then manufacturers will have to reassess what people actually want from a car and how to provide value like they used to, especially the mainstream car makers. But that will be forced on makes like VW rather than them offering a car like this for £17,000 by choice.