One of the perks of being a giant automotive group with so many brands and plants around the world is flexibility, with the VW Group being able to direct resources where they’re most needed.
If the report from AutomobilWoche is accurate, VW has decided to build the future Seat SUV at Skoda’s plant in Kvasiny, Czech Republic. According to the German newspaper that quotes company sources, the Seat SUV will be built in the Czech Republic alongside the next-generation Skoda Yeti compact SUV because production costs there are significantly lower than at Seat’s local plant in Martorell, Spain.
The Martorell facility builds another SUV, the Audi Q3, but since that one is a premium model with larger profit margins, the Spanish plant’s production costs make it cost-effective for Audi to build it there.
Seat is the only VW Group volume brand that doesn’t have an SUV in its lineup and the brand suffers because of that, with sales of these type of models booming in Europe and elsewhere. Seat president Juergen Stackmann said the SUV would be an important model in the automaker’s push to increase sales in Europe.
According to the executive, Seat is developing an SUV that would “fit the brand and develop another European sub-segment” for the carmaker. However, he said no decision had been made yet on the SUV’s production. The Seat crossover is likely to feature design cues from the 2011 IBX concept (pictured) and to be based on VW’s MQB architecture.
By Dan Mihalascu
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