SEAT to Continue Audi Q3 Output With Next-Gen Model

MADRID – The second-generation Audi Q3 CUV will continue in production at the Martorell SEAT plant in Barcelona, where the current model has been assembled since 2011.

The announcement the plant had won the work was made by Spanish members of Volkswagen Group’s works council following its annual meeting at VW headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Neither SEAT nor VW has confirmed the news, but in recent years, labor groups have been taking the lead on such plant-allocation announcements in Spain, allowing management to avoid the risk of putting the word out and having to deal with the backlash should the parent company subsequently change its mind.

Labor sources do not agree on the start date for production of the next-gen Q3, however, with some indicating 2016 and others pointing to 2017 or even as late as 2018.

It appears a Job One closer to 2018 may be the most realistic timetable, as there appears no slowdown in demand for the current model. Labor insiders say plans are to increase output to 115,000 units this year, compared with 104,474 in 2013, with another jump to 120,000 possible for 2015.

Martorell competed against the Brussels plant to win the next-gen Q3 work, labor officials say, with one scenario calling for the Belgian facility to get the Q3 and output of the upcoming smaller Q1 CUV, expected to reach the market in 2016, going to the Spanish operation.

Spanish union officials are happy to keep the Q3, which they say requires 26 hours of work to assemble, compared with an estimated 15 hours for the Q1. The move to retain the bigger model in production at Martorell likely will be more cost-effective for VW, which already has made the investment for the Q3 at that plant and enjoys lower labor costs in Spain than in Belgium.

However, some here have viewed the Q3 program as a consolation prize for Martorell to make up for the sourcing of an upcoming, long-awaited and still-unnamed CUV for SEAT from Skoda’s Czech plant. Skoda also will get a version of the vehicle.

In addition to the Q3, Martorell assembles the SEAT Leon, Altea and Ibiza, a trio that accounted for output of 256,000 units in 2013. The launch of a new Ibiza in 2016 could add a third work shift for this model, currently the only one built on just two shifts.