On September 9, the new president of the Volkswagen group. Oliver Blume met his executive committee in Barcelona and took the opportunity to visit Cupra's headquarters. A gesture that Wayne Griffiths highlighted on his LinkedIn account and symbolizes the turn that Seat is taking in favor of its sports subsidiary Cupra. Griffiths, president of Seat and Cupra, insists that they are complementary brands, but this focus of investments in Cupra worries the unions, who fear that its manufacturing volume, with electric cars, will not ensure the level of employment in the factory of Martorell and probably neither the components plant of El Prat.
"If Seat does not have an electric car, either it is condemned to sell only outside Europe from 2035 or it settles the brand," says a specialized consultant. In fact, there are no plans to renew models for Seat, and its last car could leave the chain in 2029, when the León is expected to stop being manufactured.
Matías Carnero, president of the Seat works council and member of the VW consortium's supervisory board, has been warning of the risk that the company runs for some time. "Not even with a production of 500,000 Cupras a year would the Martorell plant be profitable," he explains. However, his concern is no longer so much the prioritization of Cupra, "but rather that Martorell be awarded a second manufacturing platform, whatever the brand." It would be a complementary platform to that of the Urban Rebel electric compact, which will begin to be manufactured in 2025 with the Cupra, VW and Skoda brands. "A second platform is essential," insisted Carnero, who also expressed his hope that Oliver Blume will print a change of course with respect to the strategy of his predecessor Herbert Diess, whom he accuses of having discriminated against Seat in the distribution of scarce semiconductors. available. Fewer chips ultimately means less production, less sales and more losses. The group's argument is that priority is given to models with a higher profit margin and in this context in Spain, priority is given to Cupra.
“I trust so”, Javier Pacheco answers the question of whether he considers that cars with the Seat brand will continue to be manufactured. "Today it is not clear, but the union's commitment is that it has to continue as a brand and as a company, it must incorporate the initiatives that the group may have in its commercial commitment, such as that of Cupra, but without abandoning its core". points out the leader of the Workers' Commissions of Catalonia.
While Seat does not have any new model in the offing, Cupra has approved an ambitious launch strategy. But most of the new models are not going to be manufactured in Martorell, because the platforms to share with other models of the group are outside of here. A saving strategy that is going to be more and more intense with the advance of the electric car.
Currently, Cupra has four models. Two of them – the Formentor and the Cupra León – are manufactured in Martorell. Then there are the Born, which is made in Germany, and the Cupra Ateca, produced in the Czech Republic. And of the three that are scheduled to launch between 2024 and 2025, only the small Urban Rebel is going to be made in Martorell. For the future Tavascán there is still no assigned plant, although it has been decided that it will be done outside because it does not fit with the Martorell platform (there is speculation with China). And the Terramar will be made in the plant that Audi has in Hungary. "For years, and even more so with the electric vehicle, the group's factories have opted for the award of platforms on which different models will be manufactured for different brands, not just the allocation of models," explain Seat sources.
