According to Wayne Griffiths, the president of SEAT and CUPRA, it was not easy to get Volkswagen Group approval to make the Tavascan in a production model.
But last March the “green light” was finally given to develop the fierce electric crossover, presented as a concept in 2019. When it arrives, in 2024, it will be the brand's second electric crossover — the first is the Born, which is about to start its commercialization.
Now, half a year later, the first test mule of the future CUPRA Tavascan has been “caught” on the road, in the form of a Volkswagen ID.4.
No wonder an ID.4 is the “test mule”; the CUPRA Tavascan will share the same base and kinematic chain, becoming the fourth electric crossover with an MEB base to reach the market.
In addition to the ID.4, the Audi Q4 e-tron and the Skoda Enyaq are already on sale. The future Tavascan is expected to share most of the mechanical options, batteries and other technologies with them.
Given CUPRA's focus on dynamics and performance, it's to be expected that it will also inherit the two electric motor configuration (one per axis) that we've already seen in the ID.4 GTX or the Q4 e-tron 50 quattro, which translates to these models with 299 hp of power and an electric range between 480 km and 488 km, courtesy of the 82 kWh battery (77 kWh net).
We recall that, when it was unveiled as a concept at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show, the CUPRA Tavascan announced 306 hp, a battery with 77 kWh and 450 km of autonomy.
Will the design look similar to the concept?
The CUPRA Tavascan, despite the identical or similar technical characteristics to those of its “cousins”, promises, however, not only greater dynamic refinement, but also a distinct and sportier design. Will it be close to the well-received concept? It's just that there are going to be changes, anticipated by the latest CUPRA prototypes.
The CUPRA Tavascan that was unveiled in 2019
During the Munich Motor Show, which took place last week, CUPRA showed two prototypes. The first was the UrbanRebel, which anticipates its third and most compact electric to 2025. And the second was the Tavascan Extreme E Concept, the redesigned competition prototype for Extreme E, which started to adopt the name of the brand's future electric crossover .
It was with these two prototypes that we got to know CUPRA's new luminous signature, consisting of three triangles, a solution that was not present in the original 2019 concept. And looking at UrbanRebel (below), you can predict that some of its details influence the future of production Tavascan.
