It's time to play big

1992 during the Olympic Games in Barcelona. The Spanish water polo team was obviously playing at home. All public expectations and pressure were placed on them. They had prepared like nobody else, like never before. Under the supervision of a famous Croatian coach they went through 3 months long training program that included every day 10 km running in the mountains, 12 km swimming, 1 hour gym, 90 min weights... you can still see a video in YouTube is called Return to Hell. They were a group of outstanding single players, that team was considered as the favourite for the Gold Medal. In fact they made it quite easily to the final where they had to face Italy ;)

The result was a defeat, 8-9: a goal of difference during the extra time. Playing at home, hitting the post in the last second: no worst scenario possible. The press accused them of being too individualistic and not playing as a team. Players were devastated… lots of them were thinking about retiring. But they didn’t. They took their failure as a new starting point. They changed their training methods. It was now more about group exercises, about solidarity between players, shared objectives rather than power and ego.

I wanted to recall the story because I see a parallel with what has happened in the last year at SEAT. As a trainer I don’t see anymore any embarrassment in the eyes of our players when they have to jump in the pool for bigger games than the one we were use to, and I see solidarity within the organization that makes me very optimistic about the chances of harvesting more success in the years to come. And I have to tell you it is a beautiful feeling!

In the last 3 years we launched one model every 6 months. We have a product portfolio that is on average a little more than 3 years old and is now covering 75% of the demand. We have now fresh and good products in the segments where people increasingly buy.

The launch of the new Tarraco perfectly fits into our strategy. In the last 5 years, the midsize SUV segment has doubled its volume in Europe, and this growth will continue. The estimation is that vehicles sales, in this category will multiply by 2 until 2025, achieving 2.8 million units. This is not a niche it is a core segment. In particular, the high end of this segment, where Tarraco is positioned, accounts approximately 20% of the total A-SUV volume in Europe. On the other hand, we think Tarraco can also help us in our globalization strategy, since we know such models are popular everywhere from South America to China.

I see the impact of good teamwork in many other indicators. We wanted to involve people in the selection of the name. It created lot of buzz and engagement: more than 146,000 people in 134 Countries participated in the selection process through our social networks. Tarraco, the ancient name of Tarragona when this city was the capital of one of the provinces of the Roman Empire, was the most voted.

This is the end of the first half time for SEAT and the outcome of a joint effort of the whole SEAT team with its suppliers from almost 40 countries. It’s a proof that we are able to play bigger, as played the Spanish water polo team after their defeat in Barcelona. For the records, four years later they won an Olympic Gold Medal in Atlanta beating Croatia 7-5 after an incredible final fight, and two more gold medals in the World Championship in Perth 1998 and Fukuoka 2001.

We are now preparing SEAT to be even more competitive in the future. We feel we have done just half of the job. We are a strong team, with a shared understanding that mobility will be different, hopefully easier, safer and less impactful on the environment in years to come. You can expect more from us!