Seat's Catalan plant last year produced highest number of vehicles since 2000

Automaker Seat ended 2019 with the highest level of production at its Martorell plant since 2000, with 500,005 cars produced, said the company on Wednesday.

The figure is a 5.4% increase over 2018, when some 474,300 vehicles were produced, making the Catalan plant the most productive in Spain and second in Europe.

In that time, some 264,854 Ibiza and Arona models were produced (up 14.5%), 153,864 León models (down 3.5%), and 81,287 Audi A1 models (down 3%).

On a global scale, the Volkswagen owned brand produced a total of 592,019 vehicles in 2019, some 12.1% more than the previous year.

The vice president of production and logistics at the company, Christian Volmer, called the Martorell plant "the heart of Seat" and one of the sector's most competitive factories.

Volmer also said that 2020 would be a "historic" year for Martorell, with three new models in the pipeline: the León, the CUPRA León, and the CUPRA Formentor. 

The plant near Barcelona employs 7,900 people and produces over 2,000 cars a day, one every four seconds, while Seat is the single firm that contributes most to Catalonia's GDP.