Wayne Griffiths, CEO of Seat and leader of his historical repositioning leaves

The CEO of Seat and Cupra leaves the leadership of the company since March 31, 2025. With this notic we have surprised the email entrance tray at 16:16 of, indeed, today March 31, 2025, announcing the departure of Wayne Griffiths, CEO until today of the company and one of the voices that have generated the most noise in the Spanish car in recent years.

“At your own request”. Wayne Griffiths’s departure is voluntary, leaving Seat SA a few days after the company presented its results. “At your own request with immediate effect to undertake new challenges”, Read in the statement that the company has published.

Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen brand and president of the board of directors of SEAT SA highlights of Griffiths that has done a great job in the development of the Cupra brand and in the restructuring of the company. “The company has lived a deep change under its leadership.

The profile. Until now, Griffiths’s career He had always been linked to the march of the Volkswagen Group. His admission occurred in 1989 aboard Audi, where he grew up during the 90s after a brief step by Seat. As of 1998 he assumed positions of responsibility in the Audi sales area which catapulted him to the position of Audi sales director in Germany during the 2000s.

Already in 2016 he was appointed Commercial Vice President of Seat SA S has since been the visible head of the transformation of Seat, first as president of Cupra since December 2018 and, subsequently, as president of Seat since October 2020.

A transformation. During the four and a half years that Griffiths has been the president of the company has worked to finish tracking the train to which Luca de Meo had already put the tracks. The Italian arrived in 2015 to the SEAT address with the task of refloating the company.

Seat had been losing money since 2008. That same 2015 Seat has already entered positive numbers and began a restructuring that has completely changed the company’s identity. Because on the way to sell greater volume but, above all, more expensive cars, Cupra was taken from under the sleeve.

Now the company is the one that pulls the car inside Seat Sa From the departure in 2020 of the ItalianGriffiths has led a conversion that has left us the company’s first electric cars (CUPRA BORN and Tavascan) But, above all, the idea that Seat SA is now a very different thing than a decade ago.

“The future is Cupra”. In March 2022, Griffiths surprised with a phrase in the presentation of the company’s results: “Cupra is not the end of Seat. Cupra gives Seat a future and the future is electric. The future is Cupra.” Seat’s position began to stagger and the lace seemed to put Thomas Schäfer, one of the strongest men in the Volkswagen group, who said that “We will find a new role for Seat”.

Little by little, Cupra has devoured Seat. As you can see in the superior image, when Griffiths took command of Seat SA, Martorell produced just over 350,000 cars. Last year He moved above 480,000 cars. Despite the substantial increase in Cupra (from 23,460 units in 2020 to 173,384 units last year), the brand has managed to re -manufacture almost 240,000 Seat cars.

And the cupra figures, as little, should be maintained over time. The company has found a success in the Formentor. The car is little more than a “lifted” Seat León but they have managed to give them their own identity and, above all, sell it much more expensive. The Seat León today starts about 23,000 euros while The Formentor Cupra exceeds 35,000 euros starting.

A rocker. In recent years, Seat SA has clearly bet on Cupra. Cupra has been receiving New models ads. He went from Seat sports branch to a brand with its own identity. A movement that has the firm of De Meowho did the same with Abarth and Fiat and has repeated play with Alpine and Renault. Thus, the same car can be sold slightly retouched with a small cost for the company but at a much higher price, shooting the profit margin.

The complicated thing is to provide the new signature of its own identity. Cupra has found it with a new logo, sharp and more daring shapes than any other Volkswagen group company. Also, in addition, it is receiving new electrical models and plug -in hybrids, options in danger of extinction within SEAT.

At the same time, Seat has finished positioning itself as the Volkswagen input range. Your cars They lack any type of electrification while they have contained their prices a bit. In return, they take a juicy part of sales, open the door to position themselves as a brand interested in micromobility services And who knowsin the future of affordable electric cars to return as the most economical option.

A critic. Griffiths has ended up framing the project that was already guessed with Luca de Meo’s command but, in addition, with his departure one of the most critical voices is also leaving and that he has left in the automobile sector in Spain.

The CEO of Seat has always been contrary to Chinese electric car tariffsEuropean car policies to foster the electric car and complicate the future to combustion and Critic with the Government From his position as President of ANFAC, to which he resigned in June 2024.

I said a few days ago that SEAT will have to fire workers If manufacturers are forced to comply with emission regulations designed by 2027. With them, Seat will not be able to survive if they do not change radically in the next two years.

Photo | SEAT

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