Seat is gradually beginning to project itself into a non-thermal future as well. If the transition of the Cupra subsidiary to electric propulsion remains a priority in the immediate future, Seat would be ready to follow suit on a larger scale when production costs drop.
Announced on Wednesday, the end of sales of new thermal vehicles, from 2035 within the European Union, will push more and more car manufacturers into the arms of the electricity fairy. Among them, Seat. The leaders of the Iberian manufacturer, owned by the Volkswagen group, however suggest that this inevitable transition will only take place in the medium term, until production costs drop… and Cupra (the former sports division of Seat) has completed its electric offensive, by 2025.
” For now, electrification is still a bit expensive. We think we need to focus on electrifying the Cupra models. When the price of components drops, when batteries and motors are cheaper, then we can consider it for Seat “, declared in particular Werner Tietz, head of R&D at Seat, who has the merit of being clear.
Seat is waiting its turn…
Electric propulsion will therefore be developed at Seat in the next few years. But if the brand has already launched its small Mii Electric (which has not been sold for many months) it is not known at this stage which base the manufacturer will use for its future electric models. Logically, Seat should use the MEB platforms of the Volkswagen group and their variations (particularly MEB Small on which the Skoda Elroq should be based) or the SSP platform which should be available from 2025. The idea would then be to replace, in first, the oldest models in the Seat catalog, such as the Ateca (launched in 2016) or the Ibiza and Arona (launched in 2017).
The drop in prices should occur fairly quickly, since Ford hopes to be able to release an electric car at $25,000 by 2026 precisely thanks to the drop in the various manufacturing costs.
As for the sustainability of Seat in the face of the growing popularity of Cupra, Werner Tietz wants to be reassuring. For him, the two brands are aimed at very different categories of customers. Cupra would therefore in no way be intended to replace Seat. ” We have a very low overlap of 10 to 15% between the [clients] Seat and Cupra. The rest are new customers. Also in the Volkswagen Group there is hardly any overlap with the other brands. Cupra customers are completely different “says Tietz.
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