The Seat model will stay on sooner or later with a lower-cost electrical automotive positioned beneath the Cupra vary.
Seat and Cupra boss Wayne Griffiths sought to place an finish to hypothesis on the way forward for the Seat model as soon as and for all by confirming the probability of such a mannequin sooner or later, hypothesis partly fuelled by Seat S.A (the dad or mum firm for Seat and Cupra) chairman Thomas Schafer who stated final 12 months that “Seat’s future was Cupra”.
That future past right now’s vary of Seat fashions, stated Griffitths, will take form when lower-cost electrical vehicles might be made profitably.
“The €20,000 query is when Seat must be on the desk and as a part of the reply,” Griffiths informed Autocar.
Griffiths stated that whereas the main target of the Seat group will stay on Cupra for the foreseeable future as it’s merely extra worthwhile, the main target will be positioned on Seat once more when electrification reaches lower-priced segments and there’s appropriate demand for such merchandise.
Such a automotive will not be a right away precedence for the Seat group as it could not be worthwhile right now, and Griffiths stated “my precedence is profitability”. Seat S.A. made €625 million revenue final 12 months “with half of all our turnover from Cupra, and with larger profitability [than Seat]”, Cupra having helped push Seat S.A.’s margins to 4.4% and now accounting for near 50% of Seat S.A.’s volumes.
Seat has just lately invested in substantial facelifts for the Ibiza and Arona fashions and Griffiths stated their reveal was essential to indicate the corporate remains to be dedicated to investing in Seat fashions.
Cupra and Seat fashions will now “each stay collectively for at the very least the subsequent 5 years and stay in excellent concord as they don’t get in one another’s approach”, though there’ll be no new Cupra fashions launched that will additionally carry a Seat badge, and vice versa. To that finish, all speedy Seat group launches will be Cupras.
