Motoring journalists often put two and two together and make a marvelous headline.
Muse can come from myriad sources which, over time and when pieced together, result in (ahem) the most glaringly obvious and natural-fit new product or model development.
In an occasional series, I’ll bring you some of the news clues I come up with: step-by-step progressions to an end point that’s, well, surely a dead-cert?
The first one concerns Audi and SEAT. Here’s a progression of developments between the two sporting VW Group brands.
1: In 2008, Audi ships over the old Audi A4 production line, complete, in a convoy of trucks from Ingolstadt, Germany to Martorell, Spain. SEAT installs it over the space of a few weeks, and starts building the SEAT Exeo.
2: SEAT shows new IBx at Geneva Motor Show 2011. Lovely, we all thought – a SEAT crossover. As VW Group partner Skoda has had some success with the Skoda Yeti, and VW Group is so good at platform sharing, surely productionising the IBx wouldn’t be that tricky?
“No production plans are in place,” said a spokesman. “And if it is made, it’s not decided which platform it will use, if any: it could be VW Tiguan, it could be Audi Q5, it could be Skoda Yeti.” Hmm, mused I. Hmm.
3: SEAT announces it is going to build the new Audi Q3 at Martorell. A VW Tiguan-derived Audi crossover SUV, that will go on sale later this year. Pretty well advanced it is, then: and they’re only announcing where it’s to be made now? Looks like that fast-production-line-install trait of Martorell’s kicking into action once again.
Which naturally leads to:
4: SEAT announces its own version of the Audi Q3 and VW Tiguan, with the IBx boasting said underpinnings and going into production from 2013 – thus further bolstering Martorell towards its 500k-per-year capacity.
What do you reckon? Have the Audi Q3 and SEAT IBx provided dual previews to the new SEAT Ford Kuga/Vertrek-beater?
With the additional recent news that SEAT’s entering China next year, and given the potential sales of a sharp new go-all-road crossover in China, I’d say it stands a chance… would you?
+ Naked man in SEAT Human Carwash
+ China – event by event: the establishment
