What’s Spanish for ‘meltdown’? That’s what Seat chairman Thomas Schäfer caused at the Munich motor show last September when asked about the long-questioned future of the country’s national car maker.
In a roundtable interview at which Autocar was present and reported his comments from first, Schäfer said “the future of Seat is Cupra”; investments would go to Cupra and Seat would get a “new role” that would be rooted more in different kinds of e-mobility.
An Australian journalist interviewed Seat and Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths later that same day, and when the stories were put to him, he said the quotes had been “misunderstood”.
Schäfer himself wrote on LinkedIn something of a love letter to Seat later that week, which began: “Despite inaccurate reports in some media, the Seat brand is stronger than ever”.