Seat will stop the production of cars from 2030
- Founded in 1950, the Spanish car brand Seat first assembled Fiat brand cars under license, for the domestic Spanish market and then for the domestic market and export. In 1986, the Seat brand was bought by Volkswagen, which made it its Spanish subsidiary. From this date, the Seat brand is integrated into the Volkswagen group alongside the Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Porsche brands. It is then in terms of price at the level of the Czech firm Skoda. The platforms and engines were gradually taken over from the group's other brands.
- Its production volume in Martorell (Spain) was 300,000 to 400,000 units per year between 2000 and 2016, then the expansion of the Seat range to SUVs made it possible to increase this production volume to 500,000 units in 2018, then 575,000 in 2019, a year that marks a peak in production.
- It was at this time that the management of Volkswagen decided to create the Cupra brand (ex-sports subsidiary of Seat) which made it possible to market sportier, more expensive cars, but also to offer plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric cars (BEV) under this new brand.
- The Cupra brand achieved 125,000 sales in 2022 and Volkswagen management intends to quadruple this volume of sales by 2030, part of which will be produced at the Martorell site. As a result of this strategy, the Seat brand is being abandoned (no new models planned until 2030) and sales are collapsing (250,000 in 2022). Very recently, the management of Volkswagen has just announced that the Seat firm will stop producing cars from 2030.