Seat to be axed by 2029 in favour of Cupra – report

We all know Volkswagen has seen much brighter days, and now it looks like the latest casualty of its cost-cutting drive is going to be one of the group’s many brands. WirtschaftsWoche reports, citing sighted internal documents, that Seat could be discontinued by end-2029 and pass the baton to Cupra, its performance arm that became a separate brand in 2018.

“The Seat brand will be phased out in an orderly and cost-efficient manner by the end of 2029 at the latest, while ensuring continued support for existing customers (e.g., service) and the fulfilment of existing obligations,” the VW document allegedly said, adding that “continuing Seat in its current form would tie up additional resources.”

Seat and Cupra together sold a record 586,300 vehicles in 2025, but Cupra sales were up 33% while Seat’s fell 17% (how could they not when there are no new Seat models?), and VW reportedly wants Cupra alone to eventually shift 500,000-600,000 cars annually.

Of course, Volkswagen is also going through a massive restructuring programme that could see four German factories close, as many as 100,000 jobs affected and annual production capacity cut from 12 million to nine million units.

An acronym for Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo, the Seat brand was born in 1950 as a joint venture between Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Industria, private banks and Fiat. Seat cars were pretty much rebadged Fiats until the Volkswagen Group acquired the brand from the Spanish government in 1986.

The first road-going Cupra was the 1996 Seat Ibiza GTI 2.0 16V Cupra Sport, and in the years that followed, there were hot Cupra versions of the bigger Leon as well.

The first stand-alone Cupra vehicle was 2018’s Ateca, followed by 2020’s Leon and Formentor, 2021’s Born EV, 2023’s Tavascan EV, 2024’s Terramar and 2026’s Raval EV. As for Seat, its last launches were 2020’s Ateca facelift and fourth-gen Leon.

We do have to add that the VW Group’s latest release on the unanimous approval of Future Plan 2030 by the supervisory board mentions nothing about Seat being axed, but the number of models will be halved across the group.