SEAT owned by Volkswagen Group
SEAT S.A. (English: , Spanish: [ˈseat]; Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo lit. Spanish Touring Automobiles Company) is a Spanish car manufacturer, which sells its vehicles under the SEAT and Cupra brands. It was founded on 9 May 1950 as a partnership between the Spanish state-owned Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI), which held a majority stake, Spanish private banks, and FIAT. It quickly became the largest supplier of cars in Spain. In 1986, after 36 years of being publicly listed as an independent automaker, the Spanish government sold SEAT to the Volkswagen Group, of which it remains a wholly owned subsidiary.The headquarters of SEAT S.A. is located at the company's industrial complex in Martorell near Barcelona. In 2020, annual production was over 468,000 units, with more than 427,000 cars sold in just one year, exported to over 75 countries worldwide.Volkswagen Group subsidiary
In 1982, Dr. Carl Horst Hahn, who had just assumed responsibility as the chairman of the Volkswagenwerk AG (Volkswagen Group), examined the opportunity of approaching SEAT after Fiat's withdrawal in his plan to expand the Volkswagen Group's operations out of Germany and turning the German group into a global force. It also followed the precedent set by other global manufacturers (such as Ford in Valencia and General Motors in Zaragoza) in setting up manufacturing operations in Spain. However, the Spanish authorities had already started talks with other foreign firms, such as Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi to choose a strong partner for SEAT. Hahn's interest soon resulted in industrial and commercial cooperation, as well as a license agreement with SEAT on September 30, 1982, for the production in Spain of the Volkswagen Passat-Santana and Polo-Derby models in SEAT's Zona Franca and Landaben factories, respectively – having thus as an effect on April 29, 1983, the ending of the SEAT Panda's production at the Landaben assembly lines due to the need of adapting this plant to the production of the VW Polo – and eventually a partnership agreement was signed on June 16, 1983, between the two parties being represented by the president of SEAT Juan Miguel Antoñanzas and Carl Hahn on behalf of the Volkswagenwerk AG. SEAT also gained the rights to distribute Volkswagens in Spain.
 SEAT launched its new Ibiza, a Giugiaro-styled hatchback, which made use of System Porsche engines and also featured underpinnings from the Fiat Ritmo/Strada, in 1984. It also formed the basis of the Málaga, a four-door family saloon. SEAT began expanding into markets beyond Spain's borders, including the United Kingdom, where it began selling cars in the autumn of 1985.
On June 18, 1986, after purchasing the 51% majority stake of SEAT and its share increased to 75% on December 23 of the same year, the Volkswagen Group became the major shareholder of SEAT. On December 18, 1990, the Volkswagen Group bought the remaining 25% of the company, thus making SEAT the first non-German wholly-owned subsidiary of the group. Fulfilling Hahn's expectations, SEAT not only made a profit two years after Volkswagen bought a majority of its stock but also provided a low-cost manufacturing outlet for other VW models, contributing up to 15.2% of the VW group's total output in 1989, as well as an opportunity to enter the relatively unexploited (at that time) Spanish market under the SEAT, VW, and Audi names.
The gathering of the brand's main infrastructures in the greater Martorell plant area has taken place in a long process beginning back in 1975 with the opening of the SEAT technical centre, but only in 1989 was a decision made to start building a new main assembly facility next to the technical centre in Martorell, replacing the old one in Zona Franca. In that same year, the translocation of SEAT's Madrid administration offices to Barcelona began with the sale of two of the brand's assets in La Castellana to be completed in 1991 with the definitive installation of SEAT's headquarters in the Catalonia region.