How one man sold risk-averse Volkswagen on an unproven idea and launched Europe’s hottest new car brand

Wayne Griffiths may come close. The 57-year old native Brit managed to convince the generally risk-averse top brass at Volkswagen that the group’s already unwieldy stable of around a dozen different car, truck and motorcycle brands had room for yet one more. The funny thing is, he may just be right.

Enter Cupra, Griffith’s baby launched in 2018, that combines a performance touch with edgy design and wraps it all in an urban lifestyle badge hailing from Spain’s trendy metropolis of Barcelona. 

“We are looking for a new generation of younger customers that want to drive something different from their parents and grandparents,” he told Fortune, “something that stands out because it looks great, drives great and is sustainable.”

Creating a new car brand entirely from scratch comes with plenty of pitfalls. Most automakers have been around for decades while a few, like Alfa Romeo and Mercedes-Benz, have more than a century of history behind them. That’s plenty of time to establish a unique identity and position oneself in the market through technical innovation, motorsports success or other competitive differentiators. 

Cupra has no such heritage it can look back on to define what it stands for. But this ability to weave a completely new story of its own conversely makes it unlike anything the Volkswagen group already has in its portfolio. As a challenger, it can afford to take risks that established names cannot.

“A lot of other new brands coming into the market are using the disruption of electrification to prove you don’t have to have a history to be successful in the future,” Griffiths said. 

The gamble appears to be paying off. Cupra is not only growing in a saturated European market, it has become the key profit driver of VW group subsidiary SEAT S.A..  

In the process, Griffiths’ experiment has earned him a promotion to CEO of the Spanish company in October 2020, and this week has been crowned Europe’s best car brand boss by top trade publication Automotive News.

A lot of doubts initially

When Cupra started out, however, fate was not on his side. 

Griffiths quickly found himself facing unforeseen events like a worldwide pandemic followed by a crippling semiconductor shortage and finally soaring inflation sparked by a war in Europe—each capable of stopping any momentum from a nascent brand dead in its tracks.

Finally the stars seem to be aligning themselves in his favor. The new addition to VW delivered a stunning 57% surge in car sales in the first half. Leading it is the Formentor, the first nameplate entirely unique to Cupra that did not derive from a SEAT brand vehicle like the Ateca. 

All told, Cupra has delivered more than 400,000 vehicles to customers since its 2018 launch, with a full quarter of that coming in the last six months alone thanks to the chip crisis finally easing.

Within the broader European continent that accounts for the bulk of its volume, it has already acquired 1.5% of the overall market, besting BMW’s lovable Mini and comfortably above the 1% slice controlled by Jeep. 

Thanks to Cupra’s swift success, it could eventually make the jump across the Atlantic as well. 

“When we set out there was a lot of people that had their doubts,” Griffiths admits, proud of the success his team has achieved.

Fight for a future

In the process Cupra has also helped solidify the recent turnaround at parent SEAT, Volkswagen’s long ailing Spanish subsidiary. It posted record first-half sales and earnings, with operating profit improving by nearly half a billion euros over the previous year.

“I will be the first to admit I thought Cupra was a terrible idea that wouldn’t fool anyone,” said EV analyst Matthias Schmidt, publisher a monthly industry report on Europe’s market.  “But it looks like it’s turning into a runaway success.” 

At the biennial IAA auto fair held in Munich, Griffiths is now set to unveil his sporty DarkRebel showcar, a physical embodiment of where he wants to take Cupra in the future.

And VW group is underwriting its growth after he beat out internal rivals to a prestigious new production investment. 

Headquarters is counting on Griffiths to build the all-important Volkswagen ID.2. In around two years time, the €25,000 (about $27,000) entry-level electric car will run off the same line as its sibling EV, the Cupra Raval, at SEAT’s main plant near Barcelona.

This helps secure jobs at the site for years to come, in the process ensuring Cupra’s native Spain remains Europe’s second largest manufacturing hub for cars after Germany.

“We had to go out and fight to get an electric car project here in Martorell before the end of this decade. Up to then, there was none in the plan,” said Griffiths. And without an EV, he adds, “you don’t have a future.”

$10 billion investment for Spain

To build this family of affordable small EVs perfect for Europe’s narrow streets and cramped space, VW is cobbling together an amount nearly twice as large as the $5.5 billion Tesla invested in its factory outside of Berlin. 

Roughly $3 billion is earmarked for developing the cars and tooling the Martorell plant, while an additional $7 billion will go towards building a new site outside of Valencia that will supply the battery cells. The project is supported with EU aid provided by Brussels.  

“We were lucky that the COVID pandemic led to NextGeneration European funds being made available,” he said.

So what exactly is Cupra, a brand still largely confined to Europe?

Just like Polestar, the sporty line of Volvos that became its own standalone brand selling EVs and plug-in hybrids, Cupra is an offshoot as well. 

It began as a range of performance-oriented SEAT cars conceived for cup racing—hence the name cup-ra—before earning its independence six years ago. 

While some models like the Cupra Leon are still heavily derived from their SEAT siblings of the same name, the brand wants to move more to standalone models like the Formentor and the Born EV. 

Next year comes the sleek and aggressive Tavascan, which Griffiths predicts will add anotther 70,000 cars per year. This electric SUV coupe sports a more refined and futuristic design language than the Formentor, marking the second major milestone in the brand’s development. 

Looking back at how he convinced VW’s board to greenlight his plans, the key was backing up his bold plan for a new challenger brand with genuine product substance.  

“When we showed them the cars we wanted to do, then they really saw that this is something special,” Griffiths. “I think that’s what they saw—that it wasn’t just a marketing strategy.”