Five things we learned about the Seat Ateca

That’s right, Seat might actually stick a Cupra badge on its brand new SUV.

“We are having the discussion right now,” Chairman Luca De Meo said of an Ateca Cupra, “whether we can find a business case for it. Mattias (Dr. Rabe, Seat’s VP of research and development) really wants to do it, but some others do not because it’s a big investment.” He adds that last year’s Leon Cross Sport concept will not make production because the company simply can’t justify it. 

But the boot is massive. The Ateca is shorter than both the Qashqai and Kadjar, but in 2WD trim its boot is bigger than either. It’s also handily smaller than the new Tiguan, which has swelled in size to compete with the likes of the BMW X3. Still MQB, though.

Seat’s design boss Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos says the Ateca is “like the big brother of the Leon,” and that new design elements have been saved for future products. He likens the introduction of each new product to climbing a rung on a sort of ladder, with each step improving and building on Seat’s reputation.

“When we need to make a breakthrough with the design of Seat, we will,” he says, ”but not now.” 

Seat Chairman Luca De Meo reckons SUV sales in Western Europe will grow by 25 per cent in the coming years, and he’s counting on the Ateca, plus other future product like bigger and smaller crossovers and the new Ibiza, to give the Seat brand a well-earned boost.

“There’s a mismatch between the internal power of the organization and the perception outside,” he told us. “The company has had a lot of ups and downs. One of the tasks is to continue to stabilize the image of the brand, so that people can build trust around our organization.”

There has been a lot of changes in the way people wanted to position the brand, we need to find our line. We have to work in the next years to find the unique proposition of Seat. “

And so…

Indeed. There will be a small, Juke-sized thing based on the new Ibiza, and something a bit bigger, maybe with seven seats. Seat will introduce another three new products in the next 18 months, but we suspect it’ll be some time before we see its triplicate of SUVs complete.