Was the end of Kit announced early? The company explains the role of the Spanish brand

One of the hot news from the recently concluded IAA Mobility trade show in Munich was not another premiere, but the news that the VW Group intends to ditch the Seat brand. Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen and head of Seat’s management board, told British website Autocar: “Seat’s future is Cupra. We will invest heavily in Cupra, it will catch on. The Volkswagen Group will get another seat role.

This was interpreted as an announcement of the end of the production of cars under the Seat brand. Now the representatives of the company in Poland say that rumors about the end of Kiti are premature.

Both brands have the same Spanish origin, but they are aimed at different target groups and thus create an additional offer for current and future customers – says money.pl Daria Zielaskiewicz, director of the Seat and Cupra brands in Poland.

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In 2018, Cupra was spun off as a separate brand. Until now, it has been used to denote the sportier versions of Seat cars. It got its own president, a new logo and breathed new life into the market and into the VW family.

The company admits that in the last three years it has flipped the switch towards Cupra.

– The period of crisis and problems in the availability of semiconductors was not good for the fire industry. We had to decide on investment priorities and we chose Cupra, believing that Seat will defend itself with a quality product and a strong financing offer. For now, those challenges are behind us, and Seat showed an 18% increase this year. sales increase – explains Zielaskiewicz.

What? Volkswagen Group wants to reconcile both closely related brands? – The seat, which has been on the market for many years, has a group of loyal customers, but also newcomers within the Volkswagen group looking for more fun answers and fun in the daily use of the car. It is also a great choice for fleets where vehicle maintenance costs are very important. Cupra, on the other hand, impresses with its sharp and progressive design and allows you to satisfy the need to stand out. on a very crowded car market – adds the head of Cupra and Seat in Poland.

In the case of Seat, more solutions will appear under the “new mobility” banner, for example electric scooters or city scooters under the Seat Mó brand. Combined subscription and subscription models provide “what Generation Z needs.” Cupra, on the other hand, is getting stronger with new cars built from the ground up.

The problems with Seat and Cupra are not the only “family problems” in the Volkswagen Group. There have been talks for years about internal competition between two other brands, ie Skoda and Volkswagen. Since the Czech brand Skoda joined the Volkswagen group in 1991, it has been a strong competitor and has overtaken it in sales rankings.

– The Cupra is a very interesting example of a new brand that we have managed to position correctly. Until now, there was a very clear difference between the sound brands like Skoda, Volkswagen and Seat, and Audi, the first brand. Cupra fills this gap and I see a very bright future for it – Pavel Å olc, president of Volkswagen Group Polska, told money.pl a few months ago.

When asked about the rivalry between Skoda and Volkswagen, he replied that “everything will change. Period.”