Today SEAT held the foundation stone laying ceremony for the new bodywork workshop at the Martorell plant for assembly of the new Audi Q3 from 2011 onwards. The shed, ready to house the production facilities in February 2010, will be equipped with almost 300 robots, making it one of the most modern workshop of its kind in the world.

The event was presided over by José Montilla, President of the Catalan government (Generalitat), and was also attended by Josep Huguet, councillor of Innovation, Universities and Business of the Catalan Government; Mar Serna, councillor of Labour of the Catalan Government as well as the mayors of the municipalities where the company's production facilities are located, together with numerous representatives of the spheres of business and trade unions. Also present were Frank Dreves, Vice-President for Production at Audi AG, and Erich Schmitt, President of SEAT, as well as other members of the Executive Committee.

Erich Schmitt highlighted the importance of this new workshop for the future of the company. "These facilities represent the biggest investment (300 million euros) ever made in SEAT over the past fifteen years. At these Martorell facilities we shall be producing the Q3 for Audi with Premium quality. That is good news for the Spanish automobile industry and especially for Catalonia."

Audi Q3 Workshop project

Construction work on Workshop 6 comes two months after production of this model was awarded to the Martorell plant by the Volkswagen Group. In the production of this vehicle will work 1,500 employees as well as generate an important knock-on effect in the car component industry.

The Workshop in figures

  • Total surface area: 30,000 square metres (4 football fields)
  • Surface area of bodywork facilities: 23,000 square metres
  • Number of robots: nearly 300
  • Maxim height: 14 metres
  • Number of skylights in the roof: 72 (1,152 square metres). Admitting natural light and reducing lighting consumption by 250 megawatt hours per year.