Photo: SEAT
During a conference to announce its best financial results ever, Spanish carmaker SEAT officially announced a brand new model is going to enter production in 2016, their first SUV ever!
According to their statement, the model has been in development at SEAT's Martorell facility. SEAT fans with a long memory will of course remember the IBX Concept from 2011, which was supposed to preview a Spanish Tiguan, but never entered production.
The yet unnamed SUV will be based on the new MQB platform, which also underpins the Leon range. Volkswagen has also announced a replacement for the Tiguan for 2016 and it's reasonable to believe the two will be developed in tandem with a sister model from Skoda.
Proportions for the 2016 Tiguan, and presumably the IBX production model ,will be close to the current SUV. All will come with a range of diverse powertrains, which include TSI petrols, TDI diesels e-Drive fully electric modules and plug-in hybrids. The standard models will be front-wheel drive and the engine range will likely start with the 110 PS 1.6 TDI and the 125 PS 1.4 TSI.
This could very well be the most successful new model launched in SEAT's history, coming into a market that's expected to continue growing in the next years. Its main rivals in Europe will be the Ford Kuga, Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.
“This is an excellent piece of news, since it takes SEAT into a new territory, in one of the largest and fastest growing segments in the world,” declared SEAT Chairman Jürgen Stackmann today in the Annual Results Press Presentation. “The SUV is an important pillar in the future corporate strategy and is a major step forward on the road to reaching sustainable profitability for the company,” he added.
The yet unnamed SUV will be based on the new MQB platform, which also underpins the Leon range. Volkswagen has also announced a replacement for the Tiguan for 2016 and it's reasonable to believe the two will be developed in tandem with a sister model from Skoda.
Proportions for the 2016 Tiguan, and presumably the IBX production model ,will be close to the current SUV. All will come with a range of diverse powertrains, which include TSI petrols, TDI diesels e-Drive fully electric modules and plug-in hybrids. The standard models will be front-wheel drive and the engine range will likely start with the 110 PS 1.6 TDI and the 125 PS 1.4 TSI.
This could very well be the most successful new model launched in SEAT's history, coming into a market that's expected to continue growing in the next years. Its main rivals in Europe will be the Ford Kuga, Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.
“This is an excellent piece of news, since it takes SEAT into a new territory, in one of the largest and fastest growing segments in the world,” declared SEAT Chairman Jürgen Stackmann today in the Annual Results Press Presentation. “The SUV is an important pillar in the future corporate strategy and is a major step forward on the road to reaching sustainable profitability for the company,” he added.
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