It was on May 9, 1950, when Seat was born, an automobile company that has ended up leading the Spanish market, first from the Zona Franca facilities and later from the Martorell factory. The celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Baix Llobregat company has invaded this edition of the Automobile show, which opens its doors this Saturday until Sunday, May 18, with a strong presence of Chinese brands and electric models slowly advancing.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary, a large Seat exhibition has filled the Plaça del Univers of the Montjuïc fairgrounds with historic models. Accustomed to being kept in the Seat Museum at the Zona Franca plant, closed to the public except on rare occasions, the cars have left the warehouse to take a stroll and take the opportunity to review each year of Seat's history.
It doesn't take long to start looking for which car each person has owned. There are always the classics like the Ibiza and the Leon, but there are also surprises, like that of the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni. For a few years now, he has been moving around the city with a Seat Mó scooter, but the first car he owned was a green Seat 127. A confession that made him aware that he carried the boomer label. Then, a more classic choice came with a white Seat Ibiza, a model that also belonged to the Minister of Industry and former mayor of the city, Jordi Hereu, who recalled how it was burned in an attack in the Port of Barcelona in 1994.
These models are linked to personal stories, but also to the history of the country. The tour goes from the first models, with the Seat 1400 that began to be produced in 1953, but also with the mythical 600, of which more than 800,000 units were sold. But the Bocanegra, the Seat Ronda, the Seat Málaga, the Seat Alhambra, or the Seat Toledo from the Olympic Games could not be missing. Also the Seat Panda which, as Seat's interim CEO, Markus Haupt, recalled, ended up being more remembered for that crash that Estopa had. Despite the dates, the popemobile made for John Paul II's visit in the 80s, based on the Seat Panda, was not included in the exhibition.
"The connection with Spain is total," Haupt remarked. Of the 21 million cars produced by Seat in these 75 years, the vast majority have been manufactured in the country (19 million), which has made it the second largest automotive producer in Europe and the ninth in the world. Integrated into the Volkswagen group since 1986, Seat contributes 1% of the national GDP and employs 14,000 workers, who will receive an extra payment of 575 euros to celebrate the anniversary. Throughout the entire value chain, Seat's footprint reaches 100,000 indirect jobs, considering that it is the only company that designs, develops, manufactures, and markets cars in Spain.
With the candles blown out, the future is uncertain for Seat, still without any fully electric model in sight. The same is not true for Cupra, the brand that the company launched in 2018 and has been gaining market share, with a very sporty design and much higher prices than the Ibiza models that so many recognize in the exhibition. "We want Spain to become a benchmark for electromobility, from Martorell to the rest of the world. We put the country on wheels and now we will put it on electric wheels," Haupt added. In a difficult moment for the automotive sector, we will have to wait to see what Seat's next birthdays will be like, also without a replacement since the abrupt departure of Wayne Griffiths.