SEAT and the Volkswagen Group focus on local suppliers for the Small BEV project

SEAT has already involved more than 100 Spanish suppliers in the Small BEV project. The goals are to ensure quality and on-time delivery, competitive costs, increase transparency and anticipate potential incidents.

SEAT and the Volkswagen Group are preparing to produce the new range of compact electric vehicles in Spain. The preparation phase is taking place at the SEAT plant in Martorell and the Volkswagen plant in Navarra. The suppliers involved in the 'Small BEV' project are 75 percent Spanish: a functional choice to have an agile supply chain and sourcing from local sources. SEAT has shared this project with more than one hundred suppliers, discussing with them the path towards electrification and defining how to work together to meet the challenges of the transition to electric mobility.

The Spanish industry

Within the Volkswagen Group, SEAT is responsible for the production of small electric cars (the so-called Small BEV cluster), a segment for which strong growth is expected in the coming years. "This is a key moment for our sector. We are committing significant resources to move forward with the transformation of the Spanish automotive industry into a European hub for electric vehicles. Our ambitious electrification plan will contribute to maintaining the competitiveness of the Spanish industry and facilitate access to sustainable mobility for all Europeans with electric cars made in Spain” said Wayne Griffiths, CEO of SEAT and CUPRA.

The transformation of Martorell

SEAT is transforming its Martorell site with a 3 billion-euro investment, preparing it for the production of electric cars with the aim of making it one of the production hubs for electric vehicles for the entire Volkswagen Group. Martorell, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is SEAT's main factory and from 2025 will produce fully electric cars, starting with the CUPRA Raval. Consistent with the company's decarbonisation goals, the plant conversion represents an opportunity to cut emissions over the entire production cycle. For SEAT, the Small BEV project is of strategic importance and determines the need to transform its supplier ecosystem, both to ensure quality and on-time delivery, and to have competitive costs, increase transparency and anticipate possible incidents.

The supplier ecosystem

“We need the strong commitment of manufacturers and suppliers in the transformation of our industry towards electrification to overcome all the challenges of this new era. By leading the development of the Small BEV cluster for the Volkswagen Group, we are facing a great opportunity to reinforce our Spanish and European supplier ecosystem. Together we will jump to the next level through electrification” added Marc Riera, Executive Vice President for Purchasing at SEAT. The company will give priority to suppliers and partners that share a commitment to sustainability and have the goal of reducing emissions throughout the entire production cycle. As far as Small BEVs are concerned, SEAT intends to work with more than 85% of A-rated suppliers, i.e. the highest S-Rating (Sustainability Rating), which assesses and encourages suppliers' commitment to sustainability.

The Control Tower

S-Rating guarantees cooperation with companies in line with the compliance and sustainability standards set and required by the Volkswagen Group. In addition, to increase the resilience of the company's logistics and production processes, almost 90% of the suppliers involved in the Small BEV project have already been integrated into the Control Tower, SEAT’s management system that provides real-time information on the location of more than 10 million parts required daily for production. This monitoring centre was inaugurated in 2019 in Martorell and makes it possible to anticipate supply incidents, reduce order delivery times and optimise material transport routes, thus helping to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Future: Fast Forward

With the Small BEV cluster and the Future: Fast Forward plan, SEAT is leading the electrification of the Spanish automotive industry, with the aim of making it a hub for European e-mobility. The Volkswagen Group, SEAT, PowerCo and the other partners of the Future: Fast Forward project are investing 10 billion euros, the largest single industrial investment in the history of Spain. In addition to the transformation of the Martorell and Navarra plants, Spain's first gigafactory dedicated to battery cell production will be built near Valencia and a complete supplier ecosystem will be created. In addition, SEAT is investing a further 300 million euros in the construction of a battery assembly plant in Martorell. Here, battery packs for electric vehicles will be manufactured, assembling the cells produced by PowerCO in the new Valencia gigafactory, creating more than 400 direct and more than 100 indirect jobs.

Source: SEAT S.A.

VGI | Responsible OU: VP | Creation date: article date | Class 9.1