Spanish carmaker Seat has recently trademarked the Cupra moniker as a performance division along with a new, never-seen-before logo with Cupra lettering underneath it. The Volkswagen-owned carmaker has also trademarked three other names – Bolero, Tango and Salsa – suggesting bespoke vehicles to arrive under the new Cupra banner.
This trademark comes a month after the internal discussion amongst the carmaker’s Spanish and UK headquarters of focusing more on the sportier and performance oriented vehicles to improve the company image as well as to stand out from the competition. The firm also planned of looking into motorsports in order to improve their product quality. Or simply let their products speak for themselves and garner the attention of the younger generation of car buyers. The Martorell-based carmaker is also looking for an electric future for their performance cars, according to earlier reports.
Currently, the Cupra versions are highly souped up variants of regular Seat vehicles. The intention of Cupra as a bespoke performance division is akin to the AMG of the Mercedes-Benz and Polestar of Volvo. And the names trademarked by the carmaker hark back to their old concepts that never saw the light of day. All three names were previously used for futuristic concepts in three different segments.
The Bolero is the oldest name here first seen in 1998 at the Geneva stage. It was a four-door coupe sedan. The Salsa Concept was seen at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show and previewed the new design language which was later adopted by second generation Seat Leon. While at the 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Tango Concept was a two-seater roadster based on a shorter version of the Ibiza. If Seats make a production version of the Tango, it would be the first convertible from this relatively young Spanish carmaker.
Seat’s upcoming cars include a hardcore Leon, with a Cupra R badging. The Ateca crossover is also due to get a Cupra makeover which has already been spotted testing undisguised at the Nurburgring.
