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Seat announced last week an investment of 5,000 million euros between now and 2025, just at a time when Nissan is negotiating with its workers to close its factories in Catalonia. In addition, it announced that it will produce electricity at the Martorell plant from that year, according to its interim president, Carsten Isensee. Before that date, the Barcelona plant will not mount 100% electric because they are not profitable.
"It takes a volume of 100,000 or 150,000 electric cars for a factory line to be profitable," he says. "It matters the volume of vehicles, not their size." Keep in mind that Martorell produced less than 100,000 units of the Audi A1 in 2019, lower than expected. And that Nissan Zona Franca, focused on closing, made just 11,000 units of the eN200 electric van.
That is why it is not concerned that Grupo PSA already manufactures three 100% electric models in Spain : the Opel Corsa-e in Figueruelas, the Peugeot e-2008 in Vigo and the Citroën ëC4 in Madrid. "They have made the awards, but what volume of electrics do they manufacture?" Isensee wonders. There is a difference between PSA Group -also BMW or Daimler- and Volkswagen Group. The former manufacture on the same platform and, as the case may be, diesel, gasoline, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or 100% electric cars. Volkswagen have a specific platform for battery vehicles.
delay compared to Europe
«Our desire as Seat and Cupra is to build electrics in Spain from 2025, because that is the time it takes to make their manufacturing profitable. Not only to assemble 2,000 cars a year, "he insists.
Hence, it asks the Government to collaborate in accelerating its implementation because «Spain needs battery factories»: «The ecosystem must be transformed. A change is required from auto builders, but also from parts suppliers. And we need the support of the Government so that Spain as a whole is better electrified. Other countries in Europe are more advanced with their climate goals. We are starting here. If we consider that the mobile park is 13 years old, public incentives are needed for customers to buy an electric vehicle and for them to have charging points ».
"We do not ask the government for money. Seat's investment of 5,000 million is the cost that the company makes for its brands, Seat and Cupra. It includes the development of new models, drives and the necessary investments in the factories to later manufacture them. This does not mean that we go to the State and say: 'These are our conditions', ” clarifies Isensee, who applauds that" the current government has a plan and it is a good start, but the road is long. "
The award of a battery car to Martorell goes beyond the Seat brand. The Volkswagen Group's strategy today is for factories not to be single-brand, but to manufacture similar models to save costs. "The reality in the Volkswagen Group is that a brand no longer builds its own cars." Martorell makes the Audi A1 and Wolfsburg makes the Seat Tarraco, to name two examples. So the Catalan plant, if you receive an electric vehicle, could be Cupra, Seat or other brands from the German consortium. "Theoretically, yes it could be done and from a practical point of view, too. At Volkswagen, from the same center we manufacture for various brands of the group ».
The Seat brand will not disappear
Seat has decided that the company's first 100% electric model is the Cupra el-Born and not the Seat el-Born, as planned. "It makes more sense." As Cupra is the company's premium brand, it can maintain a high price with more acceptance. A Seat customer would not accept a 100% electric vehicle of around 50,000 euros.
Isensee is emphatic in saying that "Seat is not going to go away." "Now we are a company with two brands: Seat will be the affordable brand and Cupra the sports, 'cool' and 'premium'". Both are well differentiated, although he clarifies that there were rumors about the possible extinction when Cupra replaced Audi as the official car of FC Barcelona.
"It is a strategy to promote a brand that is not known" and that will bring more profitability to the company, as evidenced by the fact that the Formentor - the first model that does not share a namesake in Seat - is going to be the most profitable car that Martorell manufactures. However, the numbers for this semester are going to be very negative - in the first quarter it lost 48 million. And as for 2021 and 2022, everything "will depend on the rate at which sales recover."
Returning to the battery models, the president recalls that "the Mii Electric is exhausted." And, according to him, it is "because the supply of batteries is lacking, and not only for the Volkswagen Group": "That is why the group builds a battery plant in Germany and LG Chem, in Poland, to supply until 2025," he explains. .
We are, then, before the perfect storm. Market stoppage due to the economic crisis and necessary transformation towards the electric vehicle. The main thing now is to recover the demand. "The enrollment data for the past two weeks is encouraging," he says, although Seat lost 48 million in the first quarter. And more than he will lose in the second: "Because we have been closed for six or eight weeks, without selling a car."
less use in electrical
But the manager is realistic. "The cars that are lost are not recovered, it will be very difficult to end positive." «Spain is very hard affected by the pandemic and is one of our main markets. Germany is doing better; but the UK is worse. It is difficult to predict how we are going to close the year » , he explains.
The move to electric represents a revolution in the employment of factories. You need 30% less parts and, therefore, hours of work. "That is why I say that it affects the entire Spanish industry and that suppliers must now also start the transformation." It is added that Spain does not have decision centers for the large automobile multinationals and must be careful because "Germany and France, which had relocated production, are recovering it to protect themselves."
In addition to the fact that brands will be choosing technologies to be more profitable. For example, the Volkswagen Group will abandon compressed natural gas in 2026, according to Isensee, "because it must be chosen to save costs." It should not be forgotten that the interim president of Seat is the company's vice president of Finance and IT. "Are you going to carry out all these transformations?" Is the question regarding your interimness. "We follow the Wolfsburg guidelines." Will we see you a few more years around here? Respond with a smile.
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