Seat will begin offering the new Tarraco in Europe at the start of 2019 as its new flagship SUV model, marketed as the bigger brother of the Ateca and Arona models.
The new Spanish SUV is named after the city of Tarragona in Spain, after Seat asked fans to pick a name for their latest model. The VW Group hopes that the Tarraco will help bring new customers to Seat, which hasn’t offered an SUV of this size ever before.
Seat’s new Tarraco will be available with a choice between two petrol engines and two diesel ones at launch; base petrol models are powered by the 1.5-liter TSI unit with 150PS (147hp), paired to a six-speed manual transmission and front-wheel drive.
If you must have all-wheel drive with a petrol engine, then your only option is the 2.0-liter TSI unit, which makes 190PS (187hp) and comes with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and Seat’s 4Drive system as standard. Seat claims a 0-62mph (100km/h) in 8 seconds flat and a top speed of 131mph (211km/h).
Diesel models use the same 2.0-liter TDI engine but with two different outputs: 150PS (147hp) and 190PS (187hp) respectively. The 147hp version is available with both front- and all-wheel drive while the more powerful 187hp model comes with all-wheel drive and a dual-clutch transmission as standard.
As you might have guessed already, the new Seat Tarraco is based on the same MQB-A long-wheelbase platform with the Skoda Kodiaq. It uses a McPherson strut at the front and a multilink setup at the rear, with Seat offering the new Tarraco with adaptive dampers. Seat claims that the Tarraco will be “the sportiest vehicle in the segment”.
The interior can fit up to seven passengers and features an eight-inch infotainment system with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Amazon Alexa, which can be operated via gesture control as an option. There’s also a digital instrument cluster with multiple configurations and a high-definition display, as well as wireless charging and the option of a BeatsAudio system.