► New Seat flagship SUV teased
► Third crossover above Ateca
► Four names crowd-sourced
Seat continues to play crossover catch-up and used the 2017 Frankfurt motor show as an opportunity to narrow down the potential names for its third SUV.
It’s crowd-sourcing potential badge names for its new range-topping seven-seat SUV, due in 2018. The all-new large crossover will sit atop the Arona and Ateca soft-roaders.
Read all about the new Seat Leon Cupra R also announced at Frankfurt
Seat: how to crowd-source a new car name
The #SeatSeekingName campaign gained significant traction on Twitter, where suggestions were pooled and collated. The Spanish brand announced a shortlist of nine names and these four have gone through to the semi-finals:
- Alboran – a Spanish island in the middle of the Mediterranean
- Aranda – a ‘comarca’ (council-controlled area) near Zaragoza
- Avila – a town north west of Madrid
- Tarraco – the ancient name of Tarragona
While we were disappointed that Seat McSeatFace didn’t make the cut, neither did these contenders:
- Abrera – a small town north west of Barcelona
- Aran – Val d’Aran is a province in the Pyrenees, along the border of France
- Donosti – inspired by Donostialdea, the region that includes the town of San Sebastian
- Tarifa – the most southern town in mainland Spain
- Tiede – inspired by Mount Tiede in Tenerife
The winning name will be announced on 15 October.
The naming competition comes after a pair of silhouetted teaser photos were beamed up during the company’s AGM in March 2017 (above), revealing the company’s flagship for the first time as the board announced a €143 million operating profit on 410,000 sales in 2016.
Seat’s third SUV: a new range-topper here in 2018
‘The new SUV will be positioned one segment above the Ateca and will become Seat’s flagship model,’ the Spanish car maker confirmed.
It will be offered in five- and seven-seater versions and be on sale in 2018.
Seat president Luca de Meo said: ‘This car will bring new customers to us, will boost brand image and will have a very big effect on our ability to generate margins.’
Sounds like a Kodiaq from Barcelona!
You got it. This new crossover is indeed based on the same MQB A2 architecture as the Kodiaq, Tiguan et al.
Tellingly, it will be manufactured at the Wolfsburg mothership alongside the VW version, not in Seat’s Martorell factory in Barcelona.
Seat is looking to diversify its business and reduce its reliance on Europe. ‘It would be healthy for us to sell about 30% of our cars outside Europe in the next five to 10 years,’ de Meo said, indicating that Seats could be built at VW plants in Mexico.
Click here to see the smallest Seat SUV – the Arona – on test