The agreement between the two parts took place at the Madrid City Hall and was attended by Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, plus Pedro Calvo, city councillor for Safety and Mobility; Ramón Paredes, Executive Vice-president for Governmental and Institutional Relations both for SEAT and the Volkswagen Group in Spain, and Vicente Adrián, director of SEAT España.
“SEAT is pioneer in the development of the electric vehicle and in electromobility-related technology in Spain, thereby contributing to the overall aim of transforming our country’s economic model by means of activities generating high added value," Ramón Paredes, Executive Vice-president for Governmental and Institutional Relations both for SEAT and the Volkswagen Group in Spain, said in a statement for the press.
The SEAT Leon Twin Drive Ecomotive employs a lithium-ion battery pack located at the rear of the vehicle and generating 35 kW (31 miles), with an autonomy of 50 km and a maximum speed of 190 km/h (118 mph). The car comes with many modified elements, including gearbox, power braking, heating and cooling systems as well as many components of the electronic devices. The Spanish carmaker intends to start mass production of the hybrid Leon sometimes in 2014, according to information provided by the company.
"The plan, with a time-scale stretching to 2014, is designed to carry out research, within the field of 'plug-in' hybrid propulsion, into the gradual phasing-out of the use of the internal combustion engine so as to launch onto the market SEAT models with very low consumption and environmentally-friendly CO2 emission levels," SEAT officials said at the time of the car's debut.
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