New SEAT SUV to spawn ‘Prince William and Harry’ versions

    SEAT CEO claims 2016 compact SUV could be joined by a quirky younger brother – comparing the pair to British Princes William and Harry

    SEAT will introduce its first compact crossover in 2016, but it’s already eyeing up the possibility of following this up with a more striking sister SUV a few years later, Auto Express has learned. And SEAT’s CEO, Juergen Stackmann, has likened the cars' characters to Princes William and Harry.

    “Our first SUV is William – it’s elegant, young, loved but serious. Then there could be a younger brother, like Harry, with a different character entirely,” Stackmann revealed at the Paris Motor Show. “The first compact SUV is something you’d expect from us, with pure SEAT styling, then it’s about seeing how far we can take it. Harry would still have the function and emotion that is our recipe.”

    Stackmann was keen to stress that the two models needn’t be too different in size, but would appeal to very different sets of customers. It’s a similar range structure to Nissan, with the sensible Qashqai sitting above the more radical-looking and sportier Juke, and would give SEAT’s designers a chance to express themselves further still.

    A hot Cupra version of the SUV hasn’t been ruled out, either. “A Cupra [SUV] would be more of a derivative than a separate model, and would even work with William,” said Stackmann, keeping the analogy going.

    The job of the Leon X-Perience unveiled at Paris is to introduce customers gently to the idea of a range of SEAT SUVs, according to Stackmann. “The X-Perience puts us in a price and quality range that our customers are not used to, and helps open up the brand to the idea of a more rugged four-wheel-drive model,” he said.