Cupra’s impending plug-in hybrid crossover will
deliver over 300 hp in range-topping guise and form a crucial part in Seat’s
plan of releasing a new car every six months until 2020. The CUV (Crossover
Utility Vehicle) was designed as a Cupra model from the outset, but will also
be detuned and sold as a cheaper and more accessible Seat.
The vehicle will ride on the Volkswagen Group’s MQB
underpinnings and follow the Leon as Cupra’s second model to be sold with a
plug-in hybrid powertrain. Details are scarce, but Cupra research and
development boss Matthias Rabe says it will be offered in a number of different
versions with grunt ranging from around 200 hp to a touch over 300 hp.
If the vehicle does indeed get over 300 hp, it will
have slightly more oomph than the Cupra Ateca that pumps out 296 hp from its
EA888 2.0-liter turbocharged engine. It can reach 100 km/h in a brisk
5.4 seconds, and it is assumed that the new CUV will be even quicker off the
line.
Apart from the new Cupra CUV and its Seat offspring,
the Spanish automaker is working on an all-electric model believed to be called
either Born, Born-E or E-Born. The vehicle will land in 2020, its dimensions
should be similar to the Leon and, in all likelihood, be a rebadged version of
the Volkswagen I.D. hatchback, whose production is set to commence in late
2019.
