SEAT Sells Over 200,000 Cars in First Four-Month Period of a Year

• • From January to April, sales went up by 7% more than in the same period of 2018
  • SEAT also achieved the best April results in its history – 51,000 cars sold
  • Germany, France and Italy posted double-digit growth
  • CUPRA sales rose by 82% until the end of April
    UK sales grew by 7.6%, posting 25,500 units in the same period

  SEAT’s global sales went up by 7% from January to April 2019 compared to the same period the previous year. For the first time, SEAT sold over 200,000 cars, more specifically, 202,600, in the first four months of a year. From January to April 2018, SEAT delivered 189,300 cars, which was the prior best result until this year.

  The UK has also posted high volume growth in the same period of 25,500 units – up 7.6% compared to the same period last year.

  SEAT sold 51,000 vehicles last April, which is 1.8% better than the 2018 result. It was also the best month of April, exceeding the figure of 50,100 posted one year ago.

  Furthermore, sales of the new CUPRA* brand continue to break records. In the first four months of the year, CUPRA sold 7,900 cars, which is 82.3% more than in the same period in 2018 (*note: result integrated in SEAT’s total sales figure).

  SEAT Vice-president for Sales and Marketing and CUPRA CEO Wayne Griffiths highlighted that “we are showing solid growth in the first four months of the year in a challenging economic environment and increasing our market share, especially in the major European countries. We are confident we will maintain this positive trend throughout the rest of the year, thanks to the SUV range which now accounts for over 40% of our global sales. CUPRA has made a significant contribution to our success with a strong performance by both the newly launched CUPRA Ateca as well as Leon CUPRA.”

  In the first four months of 2019, Germany, Algeria and the United Kingdom are the three countries that posted the highest volume growth compared to the same period the year before. Spain is SEAT’s principal market in this period and rose by 4.2% to a total of 40,900 cars sold. SEAT is the leading brand in Spain and the Leon is the most widely sold model. Germany (40,100; +13.4%) and the UK (25,500; +7.6%) follow Spain, while France and Italy, two key countries in SEAT’s growth strategy in Europe, are making double-digit progress with 11,400 (+14.6%) and 9,600 (+14.4%) vehicles sold, respectively.

  SEAT sales also took off in Switzerland (4,600; +13.9%), the Netherlands (4,100; +22.3%), Sweden (2,700; +14.1%) and Denmark (2,200; +28.4%), as well as in Algeria, which continues to show a strong upward trend with a figure of close to 12,000 car deliveries (11,900; +18.7%).

  Financial results also on the rise
  The increase in sales and the positive effect of selling vehicles with a higher contribution margin enabled SEAT’s operating profit to grow to the record figure of 89 million euros in the first quarter of 2019, which is 5.5% more than in the same period of 2018 (85 million euros). Moreover, SEAT’s turnover went up for the first time above 3 billion euros (3.053 billion) in January-March 2019, which is 9.7% more than in the first three months of last year (2.782 billion euros).

SEAT is the only company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets cars in Spain. A member of the Volkswagen Group, the multinational has its headquarters in Martorell (Barcelona), exporting 80% of its vehicles, and is present in over 80 countries on all five continents. In 2018, SEAT sold 517,600 cars, the highest figure in the 68-year history of the brand, posted a profit after tax of 294 million euros and a record turnover of close to 10 billion euros.

The SEAT Group employs more than 15,000 professionals and has three production centres – Barcelona, El Prat de Llobregat and Martorell, where it manufactures the highly successful Ibiza, Arona and Leon. Additionally, the company produces the Ateca in the Czech Republic, the Tarraco in Germany, the Alhambra in Portugal and the Mii in Slovakia.

The multinational has a Technical Centre, which operates as a knowledge hub that brings together 1,000 engineers who are focussed on developing innovation for Spain’s largest industrial investor in R&D. SEAT already features the latest connectivity technology in its vehicle range and is currently engaged in the company’s global digitalisation process to promote the mobility of the future.