Spanish car manufacturer SEAT was founded on 9th May 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria, but is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in Germany.
SEAT, whose headquarters are located on the outskirts of the beautiful Spanish city of Barcelona, have had reasonable success in the UK, especially with their Leon and Ibiza models. Other recognisable models also share the names of Spanish places, including the Marbella, the Malaga and the Ronda.
The company has tried hard to join the movement for cleaner energy and lower carbon emissions, and have been involved with making electric cars since the early 1990's, such as the Toleda Mk1 and the Ibiza Mk2, among others.
From the company'a beginning, a total of 16 million SEAT cars have been manufactured, with the SEAT Ibiza performing best individually, boasting 4 million unit sales throughout its history. Nowadays, the company produces, on average, about 350,000 cars annually.