SEAT to Invest €3B in Conversion of Martorell Plant for the Production of Small EVs

Over the past 30 years, SEAT S.A. has created employment and boosted industrial growth in our country and there is even more planned for the future. Our ambition is to produce electric vehicles made in Spain from 2025 and, as part of this transformation, Martorell will also manufacture the CUPRA UrbanRebel. Thanks to this project, the most important for our company in the years ahead, our employees and the factory will begin a new era.

—CEO of SEAT and CUPRA Wayne Griffiths

The transformation of the company is in line with the clear commitment of SEAT S.A. and the Volkswagen Group to the electrification of Spain with the Future: Fast Forward project. Together with its partners, the plan includes the electrification of the Martorell and Pamplona factories, the construction of a new gigafactory for batteries in Sagunto (Valencia), and the creation of a complete supplier ecosystem. It is estimated that this country-wide project will have a positive impact on the Spanish economy of more than €21,000 million.

The introduction of the electric car also requires a cultural change among the workforce and in the incorporation of new technologies. The company has activated an ambitious training plan for its employees, with the aim of achieving a more efficient organization and helping every team through these changes. In parallel, SEAT S.A. will invest in its production facilities to transform Martorell into a smart factory. To do this, it will implement data and business intelligence tools, virtual reality, and the use of big data to improve production processes and real-time monitoring.

Inaugurated in 1993 after 34 months of construction work, the factory began production after an investment of 244.5 billion Spanish pesetas (€1.47 billion). SEAT S.A. shifted production from its old Zona Franca facilities in Barcelona, where the brand had been building cars since 1953, to the Martorell factory, only 30 kilometers away. Since then, SEAT S.A. has produced more than 12 million vehicles out of a total of 45 models within the facility, exporting to more than 70 different countries around the world. Last year, the 83% of the vehicles that rolled out of the production line were exported.

The first models to come off the Martorell assembly line were the second generation of the SEAT Ibiza and the first of the Cordoba, at a rate of 1,500 cars per day. In the last 30 years, the most ever produced models at the Martorell plant have been the SEAT Ibiza (4.7 million units), the Leon family (2.5 million) and the SEAT Cordoba (more than 1 million), while the most manufactured car today is the CUPRA Formentor. As part of the global production system of the Volkswagen Group, the Martorell plant has also produced the Audi Q3 and currently manufactures the Audi A1.