SSpanish VW Group brand Cupra is promising a “truly affordable” EV for Australia with its new ultra-compact electric city car, which could cost less than $40,000 when it arrives in 2025.

The Cupra Urban Rebel is confirmed as part of a second wave of models arriving from 2025, joining the brand’s first vehicle range to launch in Australia this week.

The Urban Rebel is just over four meters long, powered by a 166 kW electric motor good for a 0 to 100 km/h sprint in 6.9 seconds, and promises a range of 440 kilometers.

It will use VW Group’s smallest battery-electric platform – dubbed MEB Small – which will also be used on a Volkswagen, which is expected to be called the ID.1, as well as a Skoda version.

Cupra Australia has already said it Wheels that the brand’s first electric vehicle, the Born, which will be launched in early 2023, will be priced similarly to a VW Golf GTI. The GTI is currently priced at about $55,000 before road costs.

Cupra’s global CEO, Wayne Griffiths, said the VW Group’s smallest electric vehicles in Europe will start at the equivalent of $30,000.

“The small BEV, as we call it, is Volkswagen Group’s ambition to have cars starting at about 20,000 euros ($29,500),” Griffiths said. “That will not be Cupra’s ambition because Cupra is positioned above the mass segment – ​​we will have more content (features) and also differ in terms of power and performance. So bottom born and affordable.”

The Cupra Urban Rebel is expected to have a starting price of around €25,000 when it launches in 2025, which would translate directly to around AU$37,000.

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Based on today’s Australian market, this would still make the Urban Rebel the cheapest electric vehicle available. A lot is likely to change by the time the Urban Rebel arrives in 2026.

Griffiths also believes the Born is a relatively affordable model too.

[With] I don’t know the Born’s price level in Australia, mainly in the markets where we’re already launching – Spain, Germany – I know that it’s an affordable car,” said Griffiths.

“And it’s available at lease rates of around a Leon or a Volkswagen Golf. With the good to high residual values ​​that the electric cars have combined with the low price, you get an affordable price.”

The Cupra brand is only four years old and was spun off from the Seat brand in 2018 to capitalize on the trend towards “disruptive” EV companies like Tesla.

Griffiths says it will appeal to a younger generation of buyers than other VW Group brands.

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“We are the only new brand, a brand created from scratch. I think that’s our role in the Volkswagen Group – a contemporary brand for the next generation of car lovers.

“On average, our customers are a generation younger than the other brands in the group. We’re 10 to 15 years younger, we’ve seen the research where [our average buyer is] around 40 years old, which still looks quite old, but is quite young in an SUV segment where most other brands are in their 50s and 60s [years old].

“There is a generation of young customers coming who want other brands [for their cars] than their parents and their grandparents. They want to stand out from their generation and they want to stand out because they stand for something.

“The brands that resonate with this new generation must be brands that base their values ​​not on history, heritage, prestige, status, money… but on more values ​​that are appropriate to today’s generation. So it’s more about sustainability, contemporary values ​​and authenticity.

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“And I think we’ll deliver that with Cupra. We want to stand out by standing for cool cars from Barcelona, ​​with great design and cars that are fun to drive, emotional, sexy, also in the electric sector.”

Cupra plans to offer a range of all-electric vehicles from 2030 onwards. The Urban Rebel will follow the 2023 Born and 2025 Tavascan electric vehicles.

The Terramar, also here in 2025, will be a plug-in hybrid with the company’s last internal combustion engine.