SEAT will reinforce its presence in SUVs. We already know the Ateca and we should soon meet the more compact Arona. The third SUV of the Spanish brand arrives next year.
SEAT announced the addition of one more model to its range. It will be a new SUV that will be positioned above the Ateca. Its positioning will make the new model the top of the range in the brand. The announcement was made at the presentation of the annual results of the Spanish brand, revealing record profits.
The increased dimensions compared to the Ateca will allow the new SUV to offer not only five but also seven seats. As would be expected, the new model will also be born from the flexible and versatile MQB, the matrix that serves as the basis for more and more models within the Volkswagen group. Luca de Meo, the president of SEAT, refers to the future model, to be launched next year, as an opportunity for the brand:
This car will bring us new customers, elevate our brand image and have a big effect on our ability to generate margins. It will be designed in Barcelona and built in Germany. By producing the new SUV in Wolfsburg, in the heart of the group, it will strengthen the ties between SEAT and Volkswagen.
Choosing Wolfsburg as the production site makes it possible to maximize synergies within the German group. Its facilities are now more than prepared to produce MQB-derived models.
The definitive name is not yet known, but the tradition will be maintained. Like the other models of the brand, it should adopt the name of a Spanish city – information confirmed by Luca de Meo himself.
The beginning of the end of the Alhambra?
The new large SUV will have the possibility, as we mentioned, to come with seven seats. Its arrival in 2018 will put pressure on the Alhambra, the SEAT minivan, produced at Auto-Europa in Palmela. As can be seen in the rest of the industry, the growing number of SUV and crossover proposals are putting into question the commercial viability of other types.
At SEAT itself, the new Ibiza will lose its more familiar proposal, the ST van. The reason? This year, the SEAT Arona, the compact crossover based on the new Ibiza, arrives later this year, the reason for the disappearance of the Ibiza ST.
Likewise, this new seven-seater SUV could make the Alhambra redundant. At the moment there is nothing, not even a rumor, about the possible successors of the minivans produced in Palmela. In fact, the rumors point precisely to the non-direct succession of these two models.
If the new SEAT SUV could be an indirect successor to the Alhambra, on the Volkswagen side, the story is different. The presentation of the concept I.D. Buzz, a futuristic and electric reinterpretation of the iconic loaf bread, could take Sharan's place early in the next decade.