Cupra has indefinitely postponed its plan to launch in the US in 2030, citing "ongoing challenges within the automotive industry".
The Seat-owned Spanish premium marque was due to expand into North America at the end of the decade with an exclusively electric line-up, including larger models designed and engineered exclusively for the US.
But now Seat has "strategically decided" to push back its Stateside roll-out of Cupra and has given no indication of when it now expects such a plan to be viable.
The announcement was made as Seat revealed its financial results for the first half of 2025, during which it said it contended with "ongoing industry headwinds". Deliveries rose 33.4% but revenues fell 2% and operating profit plummeted 90.6%.
Seat cited changes in its sales mix, intensified competition and EU tariffs on the China-built Cupra Tavascan SUV as the chief factors in the downturn, pointing to a return on sales of just 0.5% over the six months - a drop of 4.7 percentage points.
It also noted that its factory in Martorell is being adapted to build a new line-up of small Volkswagen Group EVs from next year and resultantly produced almost 50,000 fewer cars in the first half of 2025 than in the same period last year.
Markus Haupt, who is serving as Seat's interim CEO following the departure of Wayne Griffiths earlier this year, said: “The first half of 2025 confirmed the challenging environment we had anticipated, with increased market competition and EU import duties on the Cupra Tavascan impacting Seat SA’s performance.
“We remain actively engaged in constructive dialogue with the European Commission to address this issue and are confident in reaching a positive outcome in the near future.”
Despite the setbacks, this was Cupra's "best first half ever", with deliveries of 167,600 cars, a 33.4% year-on-year uptick.
More than 900,000 Cupra vehicles have been delivered globally since the brand launched in 2018 and the millionth is on track for delivery in the coming months.
Nevertheless, Seat said that "given the ongoing challenges within the automotive industry", it was delaying its plans to expand across the Atlantic.
The news comes just a day after the EU and US agreed a long-awaited trade deal, under which most EU-built products are subject to an import rate of 15% in the US, down from the 27.5% that was imposed in April.
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