At the "Future Strategies" online meeting, where SEAT shared its strategies for the future, it announced that it will invest 5 billion Euros in 5 years, and a large part of this will be spent on R&D studies and conversion of facilities to make the models electric.
SEAT will invest 2020 billion Euros between 2025-5. The investment will be devoted to new automobile development R&D projects and equipment and facilities at its factories, which will be implemented at SEAT's Technical Center, specifically to electrify models. With this investment, SEAT is making preparations for developing new models, providing employment and strengthening the future of the company.
Speaking at the "Future Strategies" online meeting, where the brand shares its future plans with the press, SEAT Chairman of the Board Carsten Isensee emphasized the following issues: We want Martorell to produce electric cars by 2025, when the electric car market will grow. ”
One company, two brands
Wayne Griffiths, Vice President of Sales and Marketing and CUPRA CEO, emphasized the following issues at the press conference held at the recently opened CASA SEAT to explain the company's future strategy: “SEAT and CUPRA are of great importance for the development of the company. Each of them has a distinct role, unique character and features and appeals to different customer profiles. Therefore, these brands complement each other and do not replace each other. SEAT represents entry into the Volkswagen Group: we have the youngest customers - an average of 10 years younger - and many customers who bought cars for the first time. CUPRA is targeting a new market segment between the mass market and the upper class market. We are confident that CUPRA has huge growth potential among customers seeking uniqueness. ”
According to Carsten Isensee, “SEAT is in the position of a company with two well-defined brands (SEAT and CUPRA) and this will be further enhanced in the future. SEAT and CUPRA can be expressed as two sides of the same coin. SEAT provides CUPRA with the volume required for growth in terms of production, R&D and human resources, while CUPRA allows SEAT to shift its center of gravity towards more emotional cars with a higher positioning. ”
While the investment capacity of both brands is provided under the SEAT structure, more than 15.000 employees and three production facilities (SEAT Martorell, SEAT Barcelona and SEAT Componentes) are offered under this structure. The company's headquarters, Technical Center and Design Center are located in Martorell under the SEAT structure. In Barcelona, near Martorell, there is CASA SEAT and SEAT's software development center and SEAT: CODE.
Moderate optimism for the second half of the year
SEAT Chairman Carsten Isensee also made an assessment for the first six months of the year when COVID-19 was marked. Isensee said: “The first half of the year was probably one of the toughest times in SEAT history. The fiscal years of 2020 and 2021 were expected to be difficult, and now we should add the very serious impact of COVID-19 on the automotive industry. ” However, Isensee also expressed a moderate optimism about the course of the industry in the coming months: “In the last weeks, we have started to see a slight improvement as we resumed our activities. We are confident that there will be at least some improvement in the second half of 2020. ”
From an industrial point of view, the SEAT factory in Martorell has almost completely regained the production speed for the pre-coronavirus period and today produces approximately 1.900 cars a day, and the Barcelona and Componentes facilities are also very close to returning to volumes before the coronavirus period. The Martorell plant is now moving towards the second half of the year, when the production of the new Formentor, the 100% first CUPRA model, and the new plug-in hybrid Leon, will begin. Both cars will be built on production line 2 at the Martorell plant, and this year the fourth generation Leon will be produced for the first time.
Hibya News Agency
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