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| The Ibiza looks sharp and sporty. Production was down in 2013 |
SEAT went rather well in 2013, production up nearly 10% was strong. To understanding the make is difficult for me as they are not sold in NZ. They seem to have a slightly sporty, youthful image but it hasn't worked that well. VW hopes for 500,000 SEAT sales by 2018. From what I can gather:
The Ibiza is a hatchback/estate car which is not that new so production figures are down. The León is as the Ibiza but larger and a newer model, with sales increasing. The Altea and Toledo are combined by VW for production numbers but I am not sure why. The Altea is an MPV made in Spain while the Toledo is a 5 door liftback made in the Czech Republic, in other words a Škoda Rapid.
The Mii is a newish model the same as the VW UP! and Škoda Citigo, all built in Slovakia. I was surprised to see production down considering it's a fresh product. The Alhambra is a large MPV made in Portugal, it's sibling being the VW Sharan. The current version has been around since 2010 and is a solid but modest seller. The Exeo was the top of the range sedan/estate car which finished in 2013, hence the slump in production.
| 11 | 12 | 13 | Production | Share | +/- | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Ibiza | 145,041 | 41.1% | -9.8% | |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | Leon | 114,568 | 32.5% | 60.7% | |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | Altea/Toledo | 43,055 | 12.2% | 32.6% | |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | Mii | 25,489 | 7.2% | -3.5% | |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | Alhambra | 19,990 | 5.7% | 3.1% | |
| 4 | 6 | 6 | Exeo | 4,681 | 1.3% | -56.9% | |
| Total | 352,824 | 9.8% |
Data source: Thanks to VW.
Summary: SEAT is a brand that is costing VW money as it struggles hard to be profitable. There is something to like about the brand, but finding enough buyers - for what is a make that is almost exclusively sold in Europe - is proving a challenge.
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| The Alhambra is considered a large MPV in Europe |
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