Cupra Has Terrible News For Its Patient US Fans
“Ongoing challenges” and “evolving market dynamics” blamed for postponement of North America expansion
https://www.carscoops.com/author/chris-chilton-cc/
by Chris Chilton
VW’s Cupra division has put the brakes on a plan to enter the US market.
Cupra was scheduled to arrive in 2030, but that timeline has been scrapped.
Brand hinted that US import tariffs and slow EV take-up forced the decision.
VW’s sporty Cupra brand just posted its best-ever half-year sales figures, but one plan that could have helped supercharge the company’s growth has just hit the skids. A project to launch Cupra onto the American market within five years is now off the table, it confirmed this week.
Related: Cupra’s Latest Concept Hints At Its Future
Citing “ongoing challenges within the automotive industry” and “evolving market dynamics,” Cupra has abandoned its US 2030 expansion strategy, and though it didn’t go into any more detail than that, a slowdown in EV take-up in America and import tariffs on cars exported there from Europe are surely behind the decision.
Under the terms of a deal just reached between the US and the EU, European cars will attract a 15 percent levy, up from just 2.5 percent before the tariff chaos started this spring.
Electric Crossovers and a North American Footprint
Cupra announced it would land on US soil with two electric crossovers, one a successor to the current combustion Formentor, and the second a bigger electric SUV. The larger model was to be built at a VW Group plant in North America, though possibly one in Mexico, whose output is now subject to hefty 30 percent tariffs. Another report suggested Cupra was talking to the US Penske dealer group about selling EVs, PHEVs, and combustion models.
But Cupra was eager to make clear this week that it wasn’t abandoning its ideas of expanding to North America altogether, merely putting them on indefinite hold. Four years from now, with another US president in the hot seat, the trade situation could look quite different.
Cupra
“We’re not stopping, just postponing our U.S. launch and will continue to monitor market developments in the coming years to determine the best timing and approach, aligned with the brand’s long-term vision,” said Sven Schuwirth, Executive Vice-President for Sales, Marketing and Aftersales at Cupra’s parent company, Seat.
Tariffs Are Taking a Toll Elsewhere, Too
Cupra’s sales are already impacted by another set of tariffs because the China-built Tavascan is clobbered with a 21.3 percent duty when entering the EU, on top of the 10 percent applied to all imports. But despite the setback, increased production costs for all of its models, and greater competition, Cupra deliveries grew by 33.4 percent to 167,600 in the first six months of 2025.
Cupra
Lead image Cupra/ChatGPT
