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Spanish car manufacturer SEAT was founded in 1950, originally under the domination Sociedad Espan'ola de Automoviles de Turismo, S.A.' (abbreviated at the time simply as 'S.E.A.T').
On its founding, SEAT had an initial capital of 600 million pesetas, the equivalent of around 3.6 million Euros by today's standards. The company's inception came at a time when the government of Spain, along with six Spanish banks, had recently signed an alliance with Italian car manufacturer Fiat, in order to help boost Spain's car manufacturing industry.
In 1951, SEAT had already begun making preparations for setting up a supplier industry background and, by 1953, the company opened its first plant in the duty-free zone area of the Port of Barcelona, allowing easy access to European shipping and the Mediterranean. The first of many SEAT cars to roll off the production line was the SEAT 1400 in November 1953. In the months to follow, the plant's output increased exponentially as its workforce continued to grow, making use of locally-sourced components in the production process. This allowed the company to limit imports, whilst helping to boost the Spanish economy by kick-starting the country's supplier industry.
By 1967, after fourteen years of producing SEAT cars for the domestic market, SEAT was already a dominant competitor in Spain's car manufacturing market, which included Citroën-Hispania, Authi, FASA-Renault and Barreiros, making the company the largest car manufacturer in Spain, both in terms of localised production and sales numbers.
Since its beginnings, SEAT sales have continually grown, and the company has released a number of popular models. Today, the company has produced more than 16 million cars, the most successful of which is undoubtedly the SEAT Ibiza model which has sold over four million units throughout the model's four generations and is a favoured option in terms of secondhand SEAT models. From its humble beginnings, the manufacturer has not only grown as a key competitor in today's car manufacturing industry, but was a key factor in revitalising Spain's economy during the post-war era.
