To take the place that the Italian carmaker’s vacated.
The Volkswagen Group believes that its Spanish marque Seat is now ready to claim the space that’s recently been left empty by the upmarket push of Italian carmaker Alfa Romeo. If you’re wondering how the two are related, you’re in for quite a story.
Alfa Romeo, a company set up in 1910, is not short of fans. Enzo Ferrari called it a “first love,” and many years later, Volkswagen Group boss Ferdinand Piech also developed an interest in the brand (when he still ran the show). In fact he was so interested, he attempted to buy the company from Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, right out from under the late Sergio Marchionne (who had none of it).
In comparison, Seat’s only been around since 1950, when it was conceived as a brand that would build Fiat cars in Spain but given its own badge. Volkswagen Group bought the brand in 1986 to “gain better access to low-cost labour and a growing car market,” or so reports Autonews Europe. And while a series of weak products from Alfa Romeo saw the brand slowly lose traction and relevance, Seat went from strength to strength, with its Ateca SUV in 2016 delivering the brands’ first cash-positive annual report, which then led to two straight-years of profits.
It’s that lack of relevance of Alfa Romeo that Seat sees an opportunity in. Volkswagen Group’s new boss Herbert Diess thinks that Seat’s ready to attack the buyers that Alfa Romeo’s left behind now that it’s turned into a premium brand.
“Young, sporty, desirable, emotional; This is how we are positioning Seat a little higher. Today, Seat has a much better product mix than just a few years ago, and has the youngest customers in the group network. I believe this brand still has plenty more potential. For people our age [Alfa Romeo] is a fantastic brand. But ever since I can remember Alfa has been on the decline. Ask a 25-35 year old and they are at a loss. They have no idea what Alfa is.” — Herbert Diess, CEO, Volkswagen Group
The Seat brand has seen some updates lately, aside from the Ateca SUV. Its performance sub-brand Cupra was recently separated from the Seat main marque, and that’s probably spurred the VW Group on with its idea of pushing the Seat brand in a different direction.
Considering that the Seat & Cupra brand both have decent cachet around them, both marques could certainly take off pretty well, especially in Europe. However to put that into greater context, Seat’s push towards becoming a more emotional, desirable brand means that Volkswagen (the brand) can proceed to move even more upmarket and sit comfortably in the space it’s in now. It also means that Skoda can continue to focus on making practical, thoughtful, and value-packed cars, while Seat can be pretty, relatively-impractical, and rather fun to drive. It also means that we should start asking Volkswagen Australia to bring the brand here, don’t you think?
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