Seat officially signed an agreement to join the JAC Volkswagen venture in November 2018. At the time, Seat said. “JAC Volkswagen will introduce the SEAT brand by 2021, and jointly electrify SEAT products.”
De Meo, who is slated to become CEO of Renault Group on July 1, said in a 2018 interview with Automotive News Europe that Seat was helping JAC to improve an existing battery-powered model (the iEV 7S) and would establish an R&D center in China to develop electric vehicles.
De Meo also said Seat could to re-enter the Chinese market with electric cars possibly in 2021-22. Seat briefly shipped a very small number of cars from Europe for sale in China before pulling out by 2015.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic struck this winter, the overall Chinese market had been contracting since November 2018. Foreign automakers in joint ventures, especially those selling mass-market cars, have been hit particularly hard. At the same time, Chinese domestic automakers have improved their offerings.
Renault Group announced this month that it would halt sales of Renault brand cars to focus on light-commercial vehicles and electric cars. PSA Group is dissolving a joint venture with Changan Motor after sales proved disappointing.
And VW Group itself has outlined a plan to revive the Skoda brand’s flagging sales in China. China has been Skoda’s largest single market since 2010 but the brand has faced increasing competition from domestic automakers. Last year Skoda’s China deliveries fell 17 percent to 282,000.