The Spanish Volkswagen subsidiaries Seat and Cupra need a new boss. The previous CEO Wayne Griffiths (59) leaves the company, officially at his own request. Seat production manager Markus Haupt temporarily takes over. The group wants to announce a permanent successor for Griffiths “shortly”.
Griffiths had headed Seat and Cupra since October 2020. Especially for Cupras build-up and expansion, the Brit was face. When Griffiths competed in Martorell in Spanish, Seat still wrote red numbers. As a result, he managed to stabilize the business. Last year Seat and Cupra delivered 558,100 new cars worldwide and thus entered into an operational result of around 633 million euros. The return was 4.4 percent.
Most recently, Griffiths looked at the future of the Spanish VW daughters. In connection with the EU special tariffs for in China built -up vehicles he warned of the loss of 1,500 European jobs. Since October, the EU has been raising additional tariffs on electric cars manufactured in China-for the Tavascan electric model of the Seat sister brand Cupra manufactured in the Chinese VW plant, it is 20.7 percent.
If the additional custom is not canceled or reduced, Seat will have to cut the loss lovers out of the model range, Griffiths said and more dramatic tones stated: “If Cupra is in danger, Seat is in danger.”
The problems with Seat and Cupra must now solve others. For Griffiths, which had started his professional career in the parents’ car dealership, a long Volkswagen career ends today. In 1993 he joined Audi in sales and stayed there in different positions. In autumn 2016, he switched to Seat as Seat Head. Four years later, he rose to the manufacturer’s CEO.