Invited to the mysterious event of Copra, what was there?

Under the slogan "Unstoppable impulse" Copra unveiled at a glittering event in Barcelona a first super mini electric and a pair of electrified SUV models, which are another milestone on the way to creating half a million cars each year

Shashi Cohen

09/06/2022

Thursday, 09 June 2022, 17:12 Updated: 17:31

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The goal: an independent model line and half a million units a year (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Four years after Copra parted ways with the Seat brand and set out independently as a sporty and fashionable brand, we traveled as far as Barcelona to the big event of the manufacturer to which close to 700 journalists from all over the world were invited, where Copra summed up its first phase as an independent brand. New and electrified models that are supposed to support the manufacturer's strategy to reach the production of half a million cars every year.

"This is the largest global event of the Volkswagen Group, in which tens of millions of euros have been invested and among the guests who are expected to honor the event will also be the Spanish Prime Minister, Barcelona footballers and other influencers," was one of the sentences / rumors circulated before the event. At the prestigious event we were even asked to respect the hosts and arrive in elegant attire and not God forbid in jeans.

Still, I was not really surprised when the event was moderated by Global Copra CEO Wayne Griffith

More on Walla!

Road test: Copra Formator VZ

To the full article

Copra Born, the brand's first electric (Photo: manufacturer's website)

what has happened...

In those past four years, Copra has performed impressively: the Copra Atca, the new Copra Leon and the Formentor (the first "100% Copra" and the one that has no stepbrother in the Seat brand) were a worldwide success, and the company recently entered the electric market with the Copra Bourne.

Today, the manufacturer is approaching a production rate of 200,000 cars a year, proudly presenting 70 awards collected by its models worldwide in the last four years and most importantly for it, revenue also grew from 430 million euros at the end of its first marketing year to 2.2 billion euros last year. It is active both among those "mass-market" brands that are sold in large quantities and in the premium market.

Among the countries that reported successful market penetration in the event, Israel was also mentioned.

Copra's electric race car in the E-TCR round (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Launch at the Death Wall of the Abandoned Track

Copra is not a conventional car brand that seeks to draw on the heritage and knowledge of decades accumulated by the parent company Volkswagen, but a brand built by people, or a tribe as the manufacturer calls its customers, with a younger generation interested in design, style, technology and social networks. And maybe a little less embarrassingly driving, certainly when it comes to a sporty brand that produces quite a few exciting and fun sports models to drive. Terramar in the suburbs of Barcelona, ​​characterized by an oval route with side slopes that in some places reach an angle of more than 60 degrees, which on the one hand may not require too much driving technique, but on the other hand certainly require a lot of courage to reach the route limits and drive almost "on The Side ", something in the style that may be reminiscent of the" Wall of Death "Who served the biker stunts at Tel Aviv Amusement Park in the 1980s.

What's a bit sad about the story of this track which was launched 99 years ago and is considered one of the first three racetracks in the world, is the fact that immediately after the first race the operator ran into financial difficulties which led to the closure in less than a year.

Copra is a member of the ABT improvement workshop for building this terrain monster (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Not to be missed: A vlog from Copra's unveiling event

After a short mingling in an air-conditioned compound set up under the Scouts' Tribune, Copra allowed us to walk to the legendary racetrack, where along the track were featured a variety of the manufacturer's familiar sports models, alongside rarer models like the VZ5 Formator (the only vehicle outside Audi to receive the famous 5-cylinder engine Of the manufacturer, which also serves the RS3), the Copra TCR touring car, and also the representatives of the electric age like the Copra e-Racer that defines the future of motor sport in a way that will make it cleaner and more economical and the sensory terrain monster in the extreme version developed in collaboration with ABT.

Urban Rebel - 226 hp electric in a super sporty mini (Photo: manufacturer's website)

The electric age according to Copra

During the event, Copra also unveiled three new models aimed at the electric age and are expected to hit the market by 2025. The first to be introduced is the Copra Thermar (named after the racetrack) which joins the manufacturer's leisure model team and is expected to be the largest and most spacious. -Hybridity or hybrid-Rechargeable with a promise of driving range of up to 100 km on electricity only, and will appeal mainly to those who are not yet ready to switch to a full electric vehicle.

The second model unveiled is the Copra Twascan, the production version of the concept model from 3 years ago, a step-brother to the Volkswagen ID.5 and another representative in the series of electric recreational vehicles with a coupe-like design that is increasing.

The manufacturer did not really reveal technical details about the above pair of models and even hurried to take them off the stage and did not allow us to be impressed by them up close. Expected market arrival: 2024.

The screen generation gets PlayStation buttons on the steering wheel (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

First super-mini electric for the Volkswagen concern

The launch star was the spectacular UrbanRebel coupe that was still presented as a concept model and demonstrates what the manufacturer's first super-mini will look like.

The model will also be used as a platform for the development of the first super-mini electric cars of Audi, Skoda and Seat, which will replace the internal combustion engine models in the coming years.

Along with a 4-meter body and a muscular and seductive design that it is still unclear how much of it will continue to the production version, the Urban Rebel will be equipped with a 226 hp electric motor and front-wheel drive that promises 6.9 seconds from standstill to 100 km / h and an estimated driving range of 440 km. Also sporty behavior that will include Copra's DNA, which may also hint at a future worthy replacement for the Ibiza Copra that went off the production line a few years ago.

Compressed and muscular (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Copra reports an investment of 10 billion euros in the development of the new electric models, an investment that is considered the largest in the history of the Spanish car industry, this should support the manufacturer's ambitions to reach the production of half a million cars every year.

If we rely on the audience reactions at the event, they seem to be on the right track.

So we did not meet the football players of the Barcelona team at the end, and settled for a player from their women's team (quite popular by the way), and to raise our pulse we got to watch some impressive laps of their electric models on the slopes of the challenge track in a spectacular audio-visual show. A bit of respect for the Israeli market in the story of its penetration, so also on stage we got a local taste abroad with a performance by Marina Maximilian who shelled out in a sweeping show and from our Israeli angle, definitely also exciting.

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