VW’s Spanish Brand SEAT in Driver’s Seat for 2016

MADRID – Losing production of the Audi Q3 luxury CUV was a rare bit of bad news for SEAT in 2015, when the Spanish brand owned by Volkswagen exceeded 400,000 sales despite launching no new models.

CEO Luca de Meo tells media during SEAT’s quarterly meeting that the A3 accounted largely for last year’s 2.4% year-on-year sales increase. But the loss of Q3 assembly to a plant in Gyor, Hungary, will be offset somewhat when production of the next-generation A1 subcompact moves from the Hungarian facility to Martorell in 2018.

Nearly 477,000 Q3 and SEAT Leon and Ibiza models were assembled in 2015, up 8% from prior-year and up 58% since 2009. Output was the highest in 14 years and approached the plant’s capacity – the Q3 and Ibiza lines operated on three shifts, the Leon on two.

De Meo is confident sales can be further improved as three new models launch in the next 18 months: a SEAT-branded midsize CUV currently being built in the Czech Republic by sister VW subsidiary Skoda; the next-generation Ibiza; and a new CUV smaller than the one assembled in the Czech Republic.

SEAT was Spain’s No.2-selling brand in 2015 after Volkswagen, with the Leon and Ibiza models ranked second and third, respectively, after the Citroen C4 family of models including the Picasso, Grand Picasso and Cactus, says de Meo, who took over at SEAT on Nov. 1 after serving as Audi global vice president-sales and marketing.

Matias Carnero, president of the SEAT works council, notes A1 assemblies will range between 180,000 and 200,000 units per year and as many as 750,000 by 2026. But the loss of the Q3 has not been well received by Martorell’s 12,000 workers; Carnero acknowledges assembly of the Q3 requires 28 work hours compared with 17 for the A1.

“If an additional model is not awarded to the Martorell plant to cover the Q3 (transfer to Hungary), we will face a problem of employment in 2018 or 2019,” the labor leader says.

Meantime, Audi has assigned to its Brussels plant production of an all-electric SUV derived from the e-tron Quattro concept exhibited at last fall’s Frankfurt auto show. Positioned between the Q5 and Q7 models, it will be powered by three motors drawing from a high-capacity 95-kWh battery and achieving 180 miles (300 km) of range on a full recharge of 50 minutes.