VW's Seat seeks go back to earnings with new fashions, fee cuts

PARIS Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) long-suffering Spanish division Seat said it can return to income this yr for the first time due to the fact that 2008 and live there via 2018, taking advantage of call for for brand new and redesigned fashions.

fee cuts and sales of fashions with better trim ranges helped Seat growth first-1/2 working earnings to ninety three million euros ($104 million) from fifty two million a year in advance, its pleasant-ever six-month result.

the brand new Ateca, Seat's first game-utility car being rolled out across Europe this yr, will assist 2nd-half of sales and extent must grow in addition in 2017 thanks to made over versions of the Leon and Ibiza fashions and the launch of the Arona, any other SUV, leader executive Luca de Meo advised Reuters.

The Ateca, competing with models from competitors including Renault (RENA.PA) and Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) inside the rapid-growing compact SUV phase, has attracted 21,000 orders this summer time with many customers new to the brand, de Meo said.

"It changes the game for us, it offers us completely specific credibility" on profitability, the CEO stated in an interview on Friday on the Paris automobile display.

"If we have a chunk of success and markets do not fall apart, I see the following 3 years as profitable years."

Seat final 12 months narrowed its working loss to ten million euros from 127 million in 2014, in step with Volkswagen's (VW) annual report.

VW, which sold Seat in 1986 to boom its exposure to the then speedy-developing Spanish marketplace, has long tried to conquer the losses because of underneath-applied potential at Seat's Spanish factory in Martorell.

It has cut management and manufacturing costs and shifted manufacturing of Audi's Q3 SUV to Martorell.

De Meo stated Seat might also provide an electric automobile with the aid of approximately 2020 as parent VW pushes 0-emission era throughout the 12-logo institution.