video games, the youth generation, e-sport, and electric cars

A virtual reality driving simulator, a car that draws on the Batmobile and emulates online video games, is burning everywhere with a desire to stay afloat in what has become the country’s most complex industrial market. the world. This is the future according to Cupra.

The Ultimate Cupra Experience: have you ever driven with your eyes closed? We do!

Airport car park, 320 kW (430 hp) electric car, 4-wheel drive, 2 engines, radio controlled car appearance, virtual reality headset, racing computer (for example) and system great cooling.

The machine is UrbanRebel’s concept car modified for racing and this whole package allows you to experience what the manufacturer calls Cupra Modeling Experience. The idea: scan the terrain and adjust the virtual circuit that you are driving, you have activated virtual reality equipment, a machine that takes 3.2 seconds to go from 0 to 100 km/h.

The whole team is in charge of developing a project that can offer a different kind of e-sport.

The short is simple, the system is amazing. It’s not true but it’s not the goal.

No delays are to be reported, the VR Varjo headset of 7,000 euros is well supported by a computer system whose total cost is 30,000 euros. And that, without counting the car (300,000 euros) in two copies.

30 minutes of running time per charge allows you to do about twenty laps at full speed. Below, the “power ups” are out of the trajectories the best drives. Virtual walls, far away from real ones, slow down the car as soon as they are touched. It is enough to avoid any drama. Each area allows you to simulate hundreds of different circuits.

It is a real achievement. No nausea, good distance estimation and a real smile on your face.

The goal? Create an experience in the middle of racing and e-Sport. But above all, position yourself as a young and modern manufacturer trying to attract the drivers of tomorrow, those that Cupra is banking on.

Cupra, Seat and family matters

Talking about the Cupra obviously means talking about the Seat. The Spanish manufacturer was relaunched and then killed by Luca de Meo (before his departure to Renault). He was killed by a member of his family elsewhere. The Cupra that represented the sporty genes of Seat, this finish (which accompanies its production) that was the dream of owners of the enhanced Ibiza TDIs has become a manufacturer in its own right. A bronze, aggressive identity that eats asphalt and a logo inspired by Transformers, Cupra repeats what Seat took a long time to erase. And it works.

Because the owners of the latest Seats seem to be enjoying themselves. The Cupra ones too. This is the strength of a brand aimed at the thirty-somethings, it’s the first new machine, the first machine that feels good. It is the car after the merguez that helped to get the license in hand. However, there is still a problem: the Cupra is unknown. Outside of Spain and Catalonia where you meet more Formentors than 208s and Clios in France, few people can recognize the logo, thinking first of the Michael Bay saga.

However, the Cupra is selling well, with +93% in 2022, an unimpressive figure since it comes after the COVID. On the other hand, the one that allows Cupra to announce 230,700 cars sold worldwide in 2023 (for 152,900 cars in 2022) is more interesting.

While Seat plunged into the bottomless pit in 2022, sales look set to pick up again in 2023, a huge feat for a brand whose newest model was due in 2020.

Cupra DarkRebel or when the online and the real collide (albeit a bit harsh)

We finish with the DarkRebel concept, which has already been presented on site during the Munich Motor Show 2023. We have already mentioned the line of the Batmobile, the interior worthy of Alien, the light intake, the elytron doors, this bullet-proof look that reminds you of the BMW Concept Touring concept or its headlights hidden under the bodywork.

---

We will only add, after an interview with Julio Lozano, the brand’s exterior design director, that DarkRebel represents what Cupra would do without the economic and industrial restrictions imposed by the Volkswagen group.

---

So, once the opening cutscenes were over, we explored the interface and what we can call the “user experience”. Yes, the same experience that is described on every IT project. Forget KITT and the futuristic car dream from the 80s Car 2024 is almost like a video game.

Let’s take the wheel, with its two joysticks that are not replaced by any game controller. It takes the colors of your choice, like a keyboard with RGB lights. These methods overlap. There is a “Boost” that gives an increase in speed (only visual, the concept did not continue). But above all, the social situation. You immediately think you are in an online game like The Crew or Need For Speed. Other members of the network are visible on the map and it is possible to track them. It’s a safe bet that this idea will never see the light of day. First, because it would encourage urban racing. Then it would violate almost all GDPR rules.

But the idea is accepted and the trend is established: Cupra aims for the future, targeting young people through video games. However, if gaming and e-sport are marketing pillars for developers, why not flood these games? Because UrbanRebel is in Forza Horizon, but the Cupra brand is not in Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo. Destruction. Especially when we see the impact that video games had on the images of the Nissan GTR, Subaru Impreza (also helped by the Colin McRae Rallye) and the other Mitsubishi GTO at the time.

We might be tempted to think that this Cupra target will seek more attention in the future. That betting on sports and entertainment is a risky bet. But that would be to forget that the world’s best-selling car can make a flatulent sound when it shuts down.