Four new SEATS on way
Boss reveals what’s in store – including brand’s first electric car
SEAT will launch four all-new cars in the next few years that will include the brand’s first electric models.
The Formentor large SUV (previewed in Issue 1,466) is one of the four, while another all-new model will also arrive, likely to be a crossover with a design that will “blur categories”, according to SEAT insiders.
Chairman Luca de Meo told Auto Express that he’s already using an electric version of the Mii city car (right), based on the VW e-up!, for his daily commute from the centre of Barcelona to the company HQ in Martorell, on the outskirts of the city. Although de Meo’s car is purely a development car, an updated e-mii, based on a new version of the city car due in 2019, is likely to be the first of the brand’s electric offerings.
Also expected is an all-electric version of the next-generation Leon, based on the e-golf and its MQB platform, due in 2019. De Meo also confirmed that the new Ibiza’s MQB A0 platform is Ev-ready and that, too, could spawn an electric version.
Post-2020, the VW Group’s MEB electric car platform will open up new possibilities for SEAT. “We are part of the biggest R&D spender on the planet,” de Meo said. “And we will come with EVS on MEB in 2020”.
Although VW’S I.D. is likely to be the first group car to use the new tech, SEAT will have greater freedom to develop its own cars off the platform. “It’s modular and can easily change in length,” design director Alejandro Mesonero told us. “It gives us more freedom to do something totally different – something that is pure SEAT.
“Because the platform is quite high, due to the batteries, the car will have to be tall, and that means making it thin due to the aerodynamics – we need to reduce the frontal area and make it efficient, as every extra km of range helps.
“But it will have big wheels and we can do a very upright rear end and sloped windscreen. It will be beautiful and very SEAT.” De Meo also hinted that we’d see more extravagant designs in the near future, including on the car’s interior. He hinted that the forthcoming large SUV, the Formentor, will preview a new design language that will come to life in 2019’s new Leon, a car that will kick-start a regeneration of the whole SEAT range.
“We are part of the biggest R&D spenders on the planet. We will come with EVS on MEB in 2020” LUCA DE MEO Chairman, SEAT