SEAT, S.A. (English: /ˈseɪɑːt/, Spanish: [ˈseat]; Sociedad Española de
Automóviles de Turismo) is a Spanish automobile manufacturer with its head
office in Martorell, Spain. It was founded on May 9, 1950, by the Instituto
Nacional de Industria (INI), a Spanish state-owned industrial holding company.
It quickly became the largest supplier of cars in Spain. In 1986, the Spanish
government sold SEAT to the German Volkswagen Group of which it remains a wholly
owned subsidiary.
The headquarters of SEAT, S.A. are located at SEAT's
industrial complex in Martorell near Barcelona. By 2000, annual production
peaked at over 500,000 units; in total up to 2006, over 16 million cars have
been produced including more than 6 million from the Martorell plant, with
three-quarters of the annual production being exported to over 70 countries
worldwide.
SEAT today is the only major Spanish car manufacturer with the
ability and infrastructure to develop its own cars in-house.