Seat has still yet to decide whether its Tribu concept car will ever make it into production.
Development has frozen on the Toyota RAV4-rivalling concept car, first seen at the Frankfurt motor show in 2007, and the firm has still yet to decide whether the car will ever make production.
“We haven’t decided on the future of the Tribu yet,” said a Seat source. “The project is on ice at the moment and we’ve got to wait and see what happens with the economic situation and whether we can make a business case for it.”
The source wouldn’t confirm a date when a decision would be taken on the Tribu, instead saying that the situation is "constantly under review”.
The Tribu was the first all-new model to be designed by Seat’s ex-Lamborghini designer Luc Donckerwolke. The concept was a three-door, but any production model is likely to be a five-door car.
Seat’s Martorell factory is only operating at 50 per cent capacity. It would to become more productive before Seat could consider building any extra models, including the Tribu, at the plant.
The Tribu's case for production should be enhanced by the presence of the Audi Q3 at Martorell, which is due to be built at the plant from 2011. The Q3 and Tribu share the same platform, so if Seat do eventually give the Tribu the green light, a production model could follow soon after the announcement as the infrastructure for its production would already be in place.
Mark Tisshaw
Twitter - follow autocar.co.ukSee all the latest Seat reviews, news and video
Join the debate
Add your comment
Re: Seat Tribu development freezes
Surely it wouldnt cost all that much for them to bring this car onto the market? Development costs are not as much as they used to be thanks to CAD/ CAM and the fact it can be built alongisde the Q3 and Tiguan sharing many core parts, thus creating economies of scale.