Tag Archives: SEAT

Seat is coming back with an EV that will cost less than 20k euros

Although VW at the Munich Motor Show (4th Sept 2023) confirmed that the SEAT brand is to be fully replaced with CUPRA, the Spanish brand is coming back to the market with a new electric car that will cost under 20,000 euros.

Seat will soon reveal several novelties, and some of them are redesigned editions of the Ibiza and Arona models, and the Ateca SUV. All models will be powered by internal combustion engines. However, this will not be enough because due to the growth in demand for electric cars, Seat will have to return to EVs.

Before the Spanish brand fell into crisis, it achieved good results in the market with its electric model Mii Electric, which gives it hope that the same will happen with the new electric model. It will be a smaller and more affordable car, and the price is the key and decisive factor for Seat’s electric future. This means that the price must not exceed 20,000 euros, which is cheaper than the Cupra Raval.

Chinese car manufacturers are putting a lot of pressure on European manufacturers and are aggressively attacking the market of the old continent. Volkswagen is one of the companies that is trying to find a solution for this, and Seat could be the ace up its sleeve, because the survival of electrification in Europe lies in small car formats in lower price segments.

Source: Autocar

SEAT will not develop new cars

For a long time there were rumors that the Volkswagen Group, as the owner of SEAT, could shut down the Spanish brand. However, the information was partially correct, as it was confirmed that SEAT has a new task, but that it will not develop new cars. From now on, it will be done by the Cupra.

“The future of SEAT is the Cupra. The Volkswagen Group will continue to invest heavily in the Cupra and increase these investments,” said Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer. He also said that Cupra has become extremely attractive to customers and that it is the fastest growing brand in Europe.

Spanish car manufacturer was founded in 1950 and represents the pride of Spain. It will keep the name and the main task of the company in the future will be alternative mobility. Given that SEAT already has the MÓ range of electric scooters, this task seems ideal.

SEAT has been struggling with sales results for a long time, so the company decided that it is time to take a different path. When it comes to current production, SEAT will continue to produce cars for the next few years, but will not produce new generations of those models.

In 2018, SEAT created the Cupra brand as its independent high-performance branch. Since then, the company has been producing originally designed, exciting and attractive cars that have been well received by the market. In the first six months of 2023, Cupra sold 107,300 cars, 56.9% more than in the same period of 2022 (68,400). These are historic results and an indication that the decision to shift focus to Cupra was expected.

Source: Volkswagen Group

Seat invests 1.8 billion euros in battery production

The Spanish car manufacturer Seat has announced that it intends to enter the production of batteries for electric vehicles, and the first step will be the construction of a brand new factory that will be financed from EU funds. The European Union will finance the project with 1.5 billion euros, and Seat will invest an additional 300 million euros. The factory should start operating in 2025.

The factory will cover an area of 64,000 square meters, the equivalent of nine football fields, and will create more than 400 direct jobs and an additional 100 indirect jobs. The management of Seat and Cupra wants to position Spain as the center of electromobility in Europe. In this regard, an initiative has been proposed to the government to deduct 15% of the personal income tax from every buyer of an electric vehicle in Spain in order to stimulate car sales while expanding the network of charging stations.

This factory will also produce PowerCo cells, and will be produced in Sagunto (Valencia). At the same time, the battery factory will be connected to a factory where zero-emission models will be produced for the entire Volkswagen Group.

CEO of SEAT & CUPRA Wayne Griffiths, stated that the construction will start at the beginning of the eighth month of this year.

Source: Seat