VW has reportedly delayed the launch of its vitally important ID.2 electric hatch from 2025 to 2026, but we’ll still learn plenty about it this fall because Cupra is pushing ahead with the reveal of the Raval, its version of the ID.2, which is seen here during testing.

The Raval, ID.2 hatch, an ID.2 crossover and Skoda’s upcoming Epiq SUV are all built around a new, shorter version of VW’s MEB electric car platform. In addition to being resized to suit cars smaller than the Golf-sized ID.3, the tiniest of VW’s current EVs, the new architecture also places a single motor at the front driving the front wheels, the reverse of the main MEB platform where the motor is at the rear.

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Both the Raval and ID.2 have been shown in concept form powered by a  single 223 hp (225 PS / 166 kW) electric motor, and VW’s ID.GTI concept teased a 429 hp (435 PS / 250 kW) dual-motor configuration. However, most versions of both cars will be packing far less firepower because the key draw of the Raval and ID.2 won’t be big power figures but a low starting price: the pair is expected to start at around €25,000 (£21k, $29k).

To hit that target, the base models will reportedly come with a small 38 kWh battery whose 186-mile (300 km) range will make it best suited to urban work, while an available 56 kWh pack will be capable of running 273 miles (440 km) between charges. A 125 kW peak charge capacity means a 10-80 percent fill should take around 20 minutes.

This Raval prototype hasn’t dropped much disguise since we last saw one, but the close-up shot of the front end reveals plenty about how the finished car will look when the covers are pulled off at the IAA auto show in Germany this fall. Poking out from behind the fake headlight stickers are the real lights, which appear to be triangular, and different in shape to the ones seen on the Raval concept car.

The close-ups also show that Cupra’s engineers have tried to obscure both the vertical air vents at each corner and much of the large black grille with white-painted plastic. Another deviation from the concept is the hood, which is more inset and has a pronounced M-shape at its leading edge, a result of the V8-style twin hood bulges.

In keeping with its more flamboyant design, the Raval should also be a little sharper to driver than the ID.2 courtesy of Cupra’s traditionally more aggressive suspension setup. So, if you were in the market for a small EV, would you go for the Raval or wait for the ID.2?

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The Cupra Born is one of our favorite small EVs. It takes the competent but slightly ordinary VW ID.3 and adds some sparkle to the exterior design and interior quality, and both of those attributes could be about to get another boost as part of a midlife refresh.

The VW ID.3 and Cupra Born don’t only share a platform as most VW Group products do. They share so much even the doors are interchangeable, and while it looks like those doors won’t be receiving any changes a part of a 2026 facelift, the bodywork and trim either side of those doors have definitely gone under the knife.

Related: The Next Cupra Leon Will Be EV Only

Eye-scrambling camouflage hides the finer details, but new lights and bumpers will make an appearance when the updated EV is revealed later this year. Images of the facelifted car’s nose indicate a taller lower grille with a new outline and a vertical vent at each outer edge of the front bumper, just ahead of the front wheels.

And the rear shots appear to show a new design of diffuser within the rear bumper, this time with a pronounced lip at the bumper corners to make the German-built Spanish hatch look tougher and lower.

The Born doesn’t need a ton of work because it still looks modern and already has most of the corporate family face now seen on models like the Tavascan and Terramar and soon to debut on the Raval subcompact EV. And Cupra already updated the Born’s interior in 2024 with VW’s bigger 12.9-inch central touchscreen.

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The ID.3 also got the same screen in 2024, but only the Cupra features an e-boost function (optional in some countries) to increase power over the equivalent VW model. While base models in Spain come with a single 201 hp (204 PS / 150 kW) motor, UK models skip that and go straight for the 228 h (231 PS / 170 kW) version that’s a stepping stone to the 322 hp (326 PS / 240 kW) VZ hot hatch introduced last year.

We’re not expecting big changes to those power outputs, but it’s possible Cupra’s engineers could liberate a few more range miles from the 59, 77 and 79 kWh batteries. The Born with the longest legs at present is the VZ, which can go for 366 miles (590 km) before a charge is needed.

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Party hats were compulsory headgear at VW’s Zwickau plant in eastern Germany this week. The factory produces six different EVs for various VW Group brands and just built its millionth electric car, an ID.3 GTX hot hatch. But Zwickau’s busy production lines are causing a headache for the bean counters at VW’s Wolfsburg HQ.

The problem is that EVs are expensive to build and deliver smaller margins than equivalent combustion-powered cars. And while electric sales doubling in Europe in the first quarter of 2025 is something to celebrate, some of those sales come at the expense of ICE sales.

Related: VW ID.2 Might Have A Shot In America, But ID.1 Is ‘Highly Unlikely’

As EVs take up a greater proportion of the sales mix – they accounted for one in five VW Group cars in Jan-March – they push profitability down, reducing the margin to 4 percent. And the withdrawal of EV subsidies in many European countries means VW can’t lean on government incentives to allow them to charge more.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the VW ID.2 and its various spinoffs and related EVs. The €25k ($28k) ID.2, which will be built in Spain, goes on sale in 2026 and should be one of the first Western-built EVs to return margins close to an ICE car’s. The baby VW and its sister SUV, plus the Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq use a new front-wheel drive version of the MEB platform that costs less to produce.

Earlier this month VW revealed that earnings before tax were down 40 percent to €3.1 billion ($3.5 bn) in Q1 even as deliveries increased by 1.4 percent. The company’s finance chief Arno Antlitz partly attributes this to EVs taking a bigger slice of the sales pie.

But President Trump’s tariffs threaten to throw an even bigger spanner in the VW Group’s plans. The constantly-changing US import tariff situation is making it harder for automaker to make financial forecasts for the rest of the year, but VW, which is badly exposed due to Audi and Porsche’s lack of US production sites, has already downgraded primed investors to expect a less successful year than previously anticipated.