Seat's future lies with low-cost EVs

Company boss sets out new plans for Seat and profitable premium sibling Cupra

- MARK TISSHAW

The Seat brand will live on in the future with a lower-cost electric car positioned below the Cupra range.

Seat and Cupra boss Wayne Griffiths sought to put an end to speculation about the future of the Seat brand once and for all by confirming the likelihood of such a model in the future. That speculation was in part fuelled by the chairman of Seat SA (parent company of Seat and Cupra), Thomas Schäfer, who said last year that "Seat's future was Cupra".

That future beyond today's range of Seat models, said Griffiths, will take shape when lower-cost electric cars can be made profitably.

"The €20,000 question is when Seat needs to be on the table and as part of the answer," Griffiths told Autocar.

He said that while the focus of the Seat group will remain on Cupra for the foreseeable future because it is simply more profitable, Seat will return to the fore when electrification reaches lower-priced segments and there is suitable demand for such products.