"It's great to be a SEAT brand manager now," said Zoltán Papp, SEAT's brand manager on Wednesday. The speculator emphasized that the brand is now on the growth path after launching offensive models such as Ateca, Ibiza and Arona.
In the first seven months of 2018, 342,000 cars were sold by the brand, an increase of more than 20 percent over the same period last year. Growth is even more impressive in Hungary, with a 40% increase over the seven months, reaching a 50% increase by the end of August. By now, the number sold sold last year was sold out. In this role, SEAT has been the biggest fleet ever sold this year, 178 cars purchased by a telecommunications company.
With the transition to the WLTP standard, growth will fall, but by the end of the year we expect to reach a 30% share, said Zoltán Papp. As a result of the need for new type approvals due to the new standard of consumption, the brand leader said that the largest volume models will have no problem, they can serve customers, but in the case of special models, the delivery may be delayed until January.
While Ibiza and Cordoba were previously the most popular model in the brand, Leon is now the largest number of models sold by Arona and Ateca on the line. As a specialist for the Vezess, the brand is currently in a good position within the Volkswagen Group, having the youngest customer base, yet attracting new customers to the highest degree. At present, the main problem is when the customer searches for a larger, more expensive model, as it is not in the supply. This problem will be solved by the arrival of the new 7-person leisure car. The first cars from Tarracó will be available in December, January, so the model can be released on February. But this does not end the expansion of the leisure car fleet, because they already have plans for the new coupé SUV.
More importantly, the new Leon will be in the second half of next year. The model will not only be built with an internal combustion engine, it will also have a hybrid version that can be recharged from the outlet. With this, SEAT is taking a leisurely turn in the alternative fleet market, where it plans to introduce their clean electric car in 2020. This model will have a range of 500 kilometers.
Since last year, SEAT has sold more than ten thousand Cups, this brand will continue to be the brand of the most sporty models ever since. Their first model is Cupra Ateca. The success of the 300 horsepower model is seen by competitors as having no similar car, only premium brands offer such a SUV performance level. There will also be a Cupra dealer in our country, who will build a separate section for this purpose in the salon.
(Source: vezess.hu / photo: SEAT)
