Seat will electrify with the Cupra brand

The executive president of Seat, Wayne Griffiths, has confirmed that the urban electric models of the car manufacturer with the Cupra, Skoda and Volkswagen brands will be manufactured at the facilities of the Spanish subsidiary of Volkswagen in Martorell (Barcelona). Griffiths explained that it is more profitable to produce the model with the Cupra brand, which has a higher price standard.

The forecast of the Volkswagen group's managers is to manufacture electric cars in Spain starting in 2025. "Our intention is to produce more than 500,000 urban electric cars per year in Martorell for the Volkswagen Group," specified the president of Seat and CEO of Cupra, in Munich (Germany) where the IAA Mobility motor show is taking place from September 7 to 12.

The executive president of Seat announced these details in the German city coinciding with Volkswagen's presentation of the digital prototype Cupra UrbanRebel Concept, a sports car version that will be the basis on which a new electric car of the brand will be developed and which will be a crossover within the urban segment. In fact, by 2030 Cupra will be a totally electric brand within the German conglomerate.

The urban electric models that the Catalan factory will take on are part of the Small BEV (small battery electric vehicles) project that the Volkswagen group has devised with an eye on the European Next Generation EU funds and the Strategic Plan for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) designed by the Spanish Government for the automotive sector. This PERTE, presented last July, will involve an investment of public resources of 4,250 million euros and is expected to generate a multiplier effect in the private sector of around 19,000 million euros by 2023.

The company maintains its commitment to the Seat brand "but priorities must be determined," Griffiths recently assured, who highlighted in Munich the good reception of the Seat range of hybrids and reiterated that it has not yet been decided when electric vehicles will be manufactured under the Seat brand. The group has made a clear commitment to Martorell with the new Seat Mô urban mobility division ---a brand focused on micromobility products and services--- and the manufacturing of plug-in hybrid models which, according to its top executive, will contribute positively to the company's economic results for the whole of 2021.

At the close of the first half of the year, demand for the Seat and Cupra brands is at a very high sales level, gradually recovering pre-covid volumes with the commercialization of 280,700 units, 45.1% more than in the first half of last year, which closed with 193,400 units. However, Griffiths has assured that production stoppages due to the lack of semiconductor supply will have a "great impact" on Martorell's production plans for this year, despite the fact that in August (when the summer technical stop takes place) the Catalan factory assembled 12,000 units.

The company closed the first half with a 50.9% increase in turnover, which stood at 5,656 million euros (3,749 million in the first half of 2020), thanks to the strong increase in sales. The operating loss from January to last July was reduced by 90.4%, to 26 million euros (a loss of 271 million euros a year ago), but achieved a positive operating result of 10 million euros in the second quarter of the year.