A brief history of the Seat motor company.

A look at the history of Seat and its most iconic vehicles.

Seat was founded in May 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria of Spain. The name stands for Sociedad Espanola de Automoviles de Turismo or the Spanish Touring Car Company in English. The company’s first cars were re-badged Fiat models thanks to an alliance that was made with the firm, the Spanish government and five Spanish banks.
These models include the Seat 600 which was based on the Fiat 600 and the Seat Panda that was a redesign of the Fiat Panda. Seat opened its first manufacturing plant during 1953 in the Zona Franca district of Barcelona. It was here that the company’s first model, the 1400, was manufactured.

During the 1960s Seat grew into one of Spain’s biggest automobile manufacturers, in 1967 Fiat increased its share in the company whilst the banks and Spanish government reduced theirs. During the next two decades the company produced some of its most iconic vehicles including the 1500, 850 and the 124. One of Seat’s most highly regarded cars, the Seat Ibiza, was launched in 1984 and quickly went on to be a favourite of both critics and customers alike. Designed as a family friendly high-performance vehicle the Ibiza went on to sell in remarkably high numbers. In 1990 99.99% of Seat’s shares were acquired by Volkswagen. The first vehicle to be released under the Volkswagen Group was the Seat Toleda which was unveiled at the 1991 Barcelona Motor Show.

More recently Seat has released popular models such as the updated Ibiza, Leon, Altea and Exeo. The company are also investing a lot of time and research into the development of more environmentally friendly vehicles and technology. Almost every single model in the current Seat range has an “Ecomotive” counterpart version, which is a more eco-friendly variant. Seat are continuing their attempts at greener technology with projects such as the Cenit Verde and Seat al Sol vehicle developments.

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