The Volkswagen Group’s affordable EV offensive went into production. Last week, the first ID.Polo and Cupra Raval rolled off the line at the Seat plant in Martorell, near Barcelona.
These are the first two members of VW’s Electric Urban Car Family. And arguably the most decisive electric cars the German car group has launched in years.
Martorell is no small venue for this milestone. The plant turned out 470,000 vehicles in 2025 alone, making it the largest car factory in Spain. Getting it to produce its first 100% electric models required over €3 billion in investment and more than 300,000 hours of staff training.
Automotive hub in Spain
The ceremony had the feel of a political event as much as an industrial one. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has a successful track record of reinflating his nation’s car manufacturing footprint, stood alongside VW Group CEO Oliver Blume.
Blume used the occasion to push back hard on the Chinese competition narrative, calling for “a clear made in Europe strategy that ensures a level playing field.” VW has now invested a total of €10 billion in Spain, he said.
Nonetheless, among traditional car manufacturing countries in Europe, Spain is a big winner of Chinese investment too, as MG, Chery, Leapmotor, and maybe Geely all intend to manufacture cars in the country.
Cost savings through platform sharing
But back to Volkswagen. The brand calls the ID. Polo, which starts at roughly €25,000, “the first true Volkswagen” in its new electric era: compact on the outside, while modern on the inside. It’s available with either a 37 kWh LFP pack or a 52 kWh NMC battery, the latter good for up to 454 km WLTP.
The Cupra Raval starts a little higher at €26,000 and comes in three variants, with a range of around 450 km. It goes decidedly harder on the styling, but both are built on the shared MEB+ platform.
That platform is the real story. VW brand CEO Thomas Schäfer said the cross-brand approach delivered €600 million in cost savings, with Seat & Cupra leading a Group-wide project for the first time.
“A shared platform that enhances competitiveness in the entry-level segment,” as Schäfer put it. These efficiency gains are what make sub-€25,000 electric pricing possible at all.
Ban is bad
Martorell is currently running a single morning shift, but is expected to reach three shifts before the end of 2026, scaling up to a theoretical capacity of 1,200 EVs per day.
A second Spanish plant – VW’s Navarra facility – will produce the Skoda Epiq and the ID. Cross, an electric take on the T-Cross. First customer deliveries of the ID. Polo and Cupra Raval are scheduled for late summer and autumn 2026.
The ID. Polo and Cupra Raval are also reasonable opening arguments for a comment made by VW’s board member for sales, marketing, and after-sales, Martin Sander.
He claimed that an ICE ban is redundant, as people will choose electric because it’s the better technology. He compared it to people previously shifting from horses to cars because cars were a better means of transport.
But banning horses never was a necessity, he argues, pointing to the fact that a ban can be superseded by technological superiority. Sander argues that the union should focus on charging infrastructure and affordable energy prices.
