Volkswagen’s SEAT has 5 years to turn around its losses!

Not all Volkswagen Group marques are doing as well – SEAT operating losses hit almost 340 million Euros last year. Volkswagen only has three unprofitable units – SEAT, Bentley, and Volkswagen commercial vehicles. SEAT’s 1Q loss this year of 110 million Euros is more than double the losses of the other two units.

Volkswagen bosses has given SEAT a deadline of sorts – it has 5 years to cut losses by expanding its model range and growing its market share outside of its ‘home market’ of Spain, where car sales have dropped by 21% last year, which is no wonder considering Spain current has a high jobless rate of 20.1 percent, the highest in the eurozone.

If the brand cannot turn itself around VW may just let it go, but it seems that things are so bad with the brand’s financials that VW would have to PAY someone to take it off its hands. “This is the last attempt for SEAT as a brand, it would not be sensible to view things differently. If one would want to get rid of SEAT, one would have to give the other party money to take it,” said SEAT CEO James Muir, who used to be ex-Mazda Europe.

Not sure if he was kidding about it or not.