#SEAT

Whenever TTAC took GM to task for branding run amok and excessive platform sharing, the example of Volkswagen has always been the key counterfactual. With seven brands available in Europe, the Volkswagen-Audi group is the continental GM, always looking for another way to repackage a pedestrian FWD platform. The only difference is that VW has actually been growing. But Wolfsburg’s brand profligacy is starting to bear some GM-style bitter fruit. Skoda has been surprisingly strong of late, actually making problems for the Volkswagen brand in certain markets. Seat, on the other hand, is not doing so well. With only one factory, at Martorell, near Barcelona, Seat has always been a slightly niche player, offering older VW designs with some Pontiac-style “emotional” styling flair and a sportier image. The problem now, as Seat CEO James Muir tells The WSJ [sub], is that

The brand really is too small for this plant

Running at only 60 percent of its 500,000 unit capacity, Seat is too small for its lone plant. As a result, VW is launching a last-ditch effort to save its dying brand.

When we reported Chinese rumors that Veedub might open a factory in Southern China to make up for its lack of exposure and market share down south, we wondered “which of their two Chinese joint venture partners will get the new plant.” If the latest rumors are true, all options are wide open. It might even be a new joint venture partner. According to Guangzhou Daily (via Gasgoo) Volkswagen could bring its ill-fated SEAT brand to China.

We’ll know more when VW will announce its “South Strategy” at the 2009 Guangzhou auto show next week. If they do.