Sorry China, No SEATs For You

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Further signs that Volkswagen’s SEAT is due for euthanization emanate from China. If there ever were plans to bring SEAT to China, well, the plans are no more, says China Car Times.

Volkswagen is pushing into the south of China, where Japanese brands rule the roost. FAW-VW has plans to establish their factory in Guangdong’s Fushan city, (the Kung-fu capital.) The SVW joint venture with SAIC wants to put their plant into Guangdong’s capital Guangzhou. At least one of these plants was rumored to produce SEATs. SEAT is VW’s only volume brand not in China. Logic is big at VW, and going to China’s south with VW’s Spanish brand sounds logical. If one insists. That logic won’t fly.

Will SEAT turn into VW’s “Spanish Pontiac” as Ed Niedermeyer suspects? If China Car Times has it right, SEAT won’t partake in the world’s largest growth market: “It appears that VW’s plans for Seat have so far been shelved.” Starvation diet?

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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 3 comments
  • Vildhund2010 Vildhund2010 on May 24, 2010

    This brand has been dead since 1995.. Just let it go VW

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on May 24, 2010

    Maybe VW's plans for SEAT have only changed. If the plant in Spain is huge and underutilized, as reported in TTAC, and the eastern European plants produce better quality at lower cost than the Spanish plant, might VW be killing SEAT so it can ship the tooling to China? Then there WILL be a SEAT presence in China, in a way, while unneeded capacity in Europe is eliminated. Is VW management that diabolical?

    • Pnnyj Pnnyj on May 24, 2010

      "Is VW management that diabolical?" Hmm,... well Ferdinand Piech is in charge of the company....

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