Seat continued with its current investment strategy in 2023, which has led it to spend a total of 5.31 billion euros over the past five years. The main focus last year was on R&D, which increased by 44% compared to the previous year, reaching 939 million euros. This reflects the company's interest in innovating in the market by launching new models of its Seat and Cupra brands.

As a result of these investments, the Seat brand plans to further improve the performance and efficiency of its plug-in hybrid and fuel-efficient cars until combustion engines are no longer on the market. In the coming months, it will launch an updated and improved version of the Leon; in 2025, it will revamp the Arona and Ibiza, and then it will be the Ateca’s turn.

Seat and Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths explains that the company's intention is to “return the Seat brand to its rightful place, maintaining last year's double-digit growth with new investments in the brand and its models. We are also looking at what we can offer in the electric world under the Seat brand. When it comes to Seat, I promise that the best is yet to come.”

Major challenges
The Cupra brand, meanwhile, is preparing its biggest market offensive in 2024, with the launch of its second 100% electric model and an electric SUV, which will be joined by new versions of the Leon and the Formentor. It will also open new dealerships in Istanbul (Turkey), Vienna (Austria) and Manchester (England, UK); although its biggest challenge will undoubtedly be its arrival in the United States in the next few years.

As Griffiths points out, “Cupra will enter the US later this decade. Our plan is to launch the electric version of the Formentor and a larger electric crossover SUV. This crossover SUV  will be produced at Volkswagen Group plants in North America, including Mexico. Initially, Cupra will be launched in selected states on the East and West coasts and in Sunbelt states. All this will be implemented using a new distribution model.”

Martorell Electrification
Another of the challenges the company is currently tackling is helping Spain become a hub for electric mobility in Europe. Its contribution includes constructing a battery assembly plant at the Martorell factory (Barcelona) and transforming line 1 to produce two electric models, one for Cupra and the other for Volkswagen.

The investment earmarked for the electrification of Martorell is 3 billion euros, 300 million euros of which are earmarked for the battery plant. Battery cells from the Volkswagen Group's gigafactory in Sagunto (Valencia) will be assembled at these new facilities, which will generate over 500 jobs and occupy 64,000 square metres.

Solar panels
The new plant will produce 1,400 battery systems per day, which will arrive directly at the assembly lines via a 600-metre long conveyor system. 70%of the electricity needed for this process will be produced by the 11,000 solar panels that will operate at Seat's own facilities in Martorell.

The Volkswagen Group's plant in Navarre, meanwhile, received an investment of 75.2 million euros in 2023, 52.1 million euros of which are associated with two electric models to be launched in 2026. An ongoing investment, i.e. the new press shop, on which 10 million euros have been spent so far, will cost a total of 52.5 million euros.

^{Photo: Seat}