AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE TALK FROM THE TOP Paying the price Record-setting Seat CEO fights to boost profit while investing in EVs Meet the boss ❚ NAME: Luca de Meo ❚ TITLE: Seat President ❚ AGE: 52 ❚ MAIN CHALLENGE: Remaining VW Group's most affordable brand despite added costs because of the move toward electrification. We increased our loyalty rate by 12 points to 40% in Europe's 5 largest markets. S eat is on track to set another vehicle sales record this year, but the Spanish brand is struggling to remain the most affordable brand within the Volkswagen Group because of the high cost of electrifying its lineup. Seat President Luca de Meo discussed this and more with Automotive News Europe Associate You won't see this at Seat because we Publisher and Editor Luca Ciferri. won't to do it. I prefer to end the year Will Seat top its sales record of 517,600 at its natural cruising speed and have a good start in 2020. cars in 2019? We have had double-digit growth this year Four years ago, you said that Seat's [up 11.1 percent through October], and midterm target was to reach an operatwe expect to maintain this pace for the full ing margin of about 4.5 percent. Last year. The final quarter of 2018 was affect- year you also set a new record for reved by the switch to the WLTP homologa- enue but despite doubling operating tion rules. This year that won't be a factor. margin it stood at 2.2 percent. Why? Do you expect a registration peak in Like everyone in this industry, Seat is inNovember-December as models that vesting massively in electrification. That emit higher levels of CO2 are off load- obviously dents short-term profitability. ed before the EU's stricter fleet emis- That being said, our contribution to the sions limit takes effect in January? VW Group is more than what our operat- 34 www.autonewseurope.com ing margin shows because it also includes sharing platform costs, manufacturing investments and components purchasing. Has adding the Ateca and Tarraco SUVs helped Seat to increase brand loyalty as much as you had hoped? They have. We increased our loyalty rate by 12 points to 40 percent in Europe's five largest markets. Seat has targeted annual sales of 40,000 Tarracos but through nine months you sold about 23,000. Why has it fallen short of the goal? I am not totally happy with the sales re- In Partnership with 2019http://www.autonewseurope.com