SEAT to invest 5 billion euros from 2020 to 2025 in Catalonia

• The investment will be allocated to R&D projects to develop new models and to equipment and facilities, with the aim of taking on new projects specially to electrify the range.

SEAT is going to invest 5 billion euros from 2020 to 2025. The investment will go towards new R&D projects for vehicle development at SEAT’s Technical Centre, specially to electrify the range, and to equipment and facilities at the Martorell, Barcelona and Componentes plants. With this investment, SEAT is preparing to develop new models and take on the production of new projects to ensure employment and boost the company’s future.

SEAT President Carsten Isensee highlighted that “this investment plan is our way of dealing with the future with determination and optimism, so that we will have a stronger, more innovative and more sustainable company. Our willingness is that Martorell will manufacture electric vehicles from 2025 onward, when the electric vehicle market will have grown.”

CEO of Cupra, Wayne Griffiths, officially confirmed that SEAT is going to launch its first 100% electric car model. Named as “CUPRA el-Born”, the car has been wholly designed and developed in Barcelona, and as planned, it will be manufactured in Zwickau, Germany, and will arrive on the market in 2021.

The company has also announced that SEAT:CODE -the new software development center- will have its office in the heart of Barcelona's Rambla, with a team of more than 150 software developers dedicated to leading the company's digital transformation and creating digital applications and solutions to drive SEAT and CUPRA, in addition to defining digital solutions for the Volkswagen Group. Right now, SEAT has already recruited 20 people to SEAT:CODE and will hire 100 more professionals in the coming months.

SEAT’s plant in Martorell has almost completely regained its pre-coronavirus production rate and today is producing around 1,900 vehicles daily, and the Barcelona and Componentes plants are also closed to returning to pre-coronavirus volumes. The Martorell factory now heads into the second half of a year which will be marked by the start of production of the new Formentor, the first 100% CUPRA model, and the new plug-in hybrid Leon. Both vehicles will be manufactured on line 2 at the Martorell plant, which this year has launched the fourth generation of the Leon.

Source: SEAT