“We will limit the top speed” says Cupra’s Vice President of R&D

Cupra has revealed it will limit the top speeds of its electric vehicles in future.

The Cupra brand has launched in Australia, bringing three petrol-powered models initially with plans for its first EV, the Born, to arrive next year.

Speaking to Wheels about whether Cupra might explore a two-speed transmission, like the Porsche Taycan, Vice President of R&D Dr Werner Tietz admitted that there was simply no need as the firm plan to limit the top speed of future models.

“It’s expensive. It’s heavy. On the [Taycan], that was necessary to have this high speed, high max speed and the acceleration," he said. "On our cars, we will limit the top speed, so actually we are limiting to 160, 180[km/h]. It depends on the model. Therefore, you don’t need a gearbox”.

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The move by Cupra follows a precedent set by the safety vanguards at Volvo, who implemented a blanket 180km/h speed limit on all new vehicles from mid-2020.

An impassioned Dr Tietz then went on to outline the various ways Cupra is engineering fun into its future models.

“It’s the linearity of the throttle, it’s a shifting time. The rest is chassis tuning, so the tyre development… chassis adjustment," he said.

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“We are not that comfort oriented, we are more dynamic oriented.

“Why must [the electric car] be boring?”

“We want to build cars for people who love driving. And not just commuting from home”.

Also speaking at the brand’s launch in Sydney, CEO Wayne Griffiths said: “We want to stand out by standing for cool cars… with great design and cars that are fun to drive, emotional, sexy, even in an electric area.”

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Evocative design and charismatic performance may be steeped into every Cupra model. But is there cause for concern as performance stablemates, like the Golf R and Audi S3, edge closer to inevitable electrification?

Tietz isn’t fazed, replying: “If you look at our sister brands, there will be some overlapping on sporty versions of, maybe of Audi. But that’s it.”

He acknowledges that certain hero variants may be positioned above Cupra’s models, but stresses that Cupra aims to distinguish itself by focussing “the full range to the sporty character”.

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It won’t be an easy path to success, but there’s a lot of opportunity in Australia for Cupra as an accessible mainstream marque with a clear performance beat.

Griffith says the local climate is “a very competitive market, but I think it’s still a very open-minded market”.

“If you are authentic and deliver what you promise… then you could hit a nerve here in Australia," he said.

“I think doing sporty cars is good for Australia. It’s a sporty country”.

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