SEAT eyeing Oz again

After launching the stylish new SEAT Leon ST wagon to the world at this week’s Frankfurt motor show, the Volkswagen-owned Spanish car-maker's CEO told motoring.com.au the company is looking at returning to the Australian market.

SEAT is on the comeback trail and is looking to grow its global sales in emerging and established markets, after struggling through the financial crisis of 2008/2009.

SEAT sales slumped to around 300,000 in 2009 after reaching a high of more than 500,000 in the year 2000, not helped by a cash-strapped domestic Spanish market.

"We are looking for opportunities for the next planning period, so we are obviously looking at Australia," revealed Jurgen Stackmann, SEAT President and CEO, hinting that the brand could hit local shores in the next few years.

"I know Australia quite well from my Skoda times. It's an exciting market and European-style cars seem to be on the march forward in Australia," he said.

Despite GM-owned European brand Opel quitting the Australian market in August this year due to slow sales and SEAT’s potential to step on Skoda's toes, Stackmann says the Spanish brand is ready to return to Australia.

"I believe from a technology point of view, from a design point of view, the SEAT brand could work well in Australia."

SEAT pulled out of the Australian market in 1999 after a five-year affair and the nation’s subsequent factory-backed Volkswagen has long said it would look at the reintroduction of SEAT once Skoda was established here.

The SEAT boss stated that due diligence would need to be undertaken before an official announcement was made and proposed that pricing would be similar to sister Volkswagen Group brand Skoda.

"I think the pricing range won't be terribly different [to Skoda] -- it would be quite comparable. However, the investigation that we have to do is actually whether there is space to position a different brand with a different identity, a different twist," Stackmann said.

Exactly how SEAT and Skoda could both survive by competing head-on in Australia remains unknown, but Stackmann said the company's renewed product range could convince Australia's to have another look.

"Development of the Leon, for example, was basically run in parallel with the new Golf, Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia. We have a very crispy three-door Leon SC, which is an amazing car to drive," he opined.

SEAT already sells right-hand drive vehicles in the UK, so steering conversions would not need to be undertaken to sell cars in Australia. It currently has half a dozen models in its range, with the most likely candidates for Australia being the Leon, Ibiza and Mii, which are based on the VW Golf, Polo and up! platforms respectively.

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