- Wayne Griffiths, CEO of Volkswagen’s Spanish subsidiary SEAT and father of the Cupra model, stepped down at his personal request “to pursue new challenges.” Simply three weeks earlier, he advised reporters his present publish was a dream job and hoped to be round to see via the launch of Cupra in the USA. May a Stellantis publish beckon?
Three weeks in the past, Wayne Griffiths was greedily trying ahead to the June opening of Cupra’s flagship presence within the U.Okay.
The daddy of the Spanish performance-car model that kinds itself as a insurgent didn’t select London however Manchester, the world’s first industrial metropolis, the place the CEO of Cupra and the broader SEAT group additionally grew up.
“You can imagine I’m really looking forward to going home,” Griffiths advised journalists at his firm’s annual press convention. “Like Cupra, it’s in my DNA.”
That gained’t occur anymore—a minimum of not as the top of SEAT (pronounced SAY-aht). Efficient Monday, he abruptly stepped down at his personal request “to pursue new challenges.” The information got here as a shock after reporting document outcomes regardless of a stagnant European automotive market in 2024, the place it generates 90% of its complete income.
In truth, Griffiths simply stated final month he had zero ambition to go away after taking up the CEO position in late 2020. And why ought to he? On monitor this 12 months to hit 1 million cumulative automobiles offered since its 2018 founding as a stand-alone model, Cupra was his child.
Griffiths was getting ready the September unveiling of the Raval small EV, based mostly off its City Insurgent idea, and even exploring a deal to convey Cupra to the U.S. market, with native retailer Penske Automotive, by the finish of the last decade.
“I’ve always said this company is my destiny, I’m all in until the end of my career,” Griffiths advised reporters on the occasion, saying he hoped to be round for the U.S. launch of Cupra in some years’ time. “For me personally, this, as I say, is a dream job. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I don’t have any other plans.”
Created Cupra from a clean sheet of paper
Griffiths might solely be described as a advertising and marketing genius when he created Cupra in 2018. In contrast to Europe’s different widespread manufacturers that usually boast the substance and title recognition solely a century of automotive historical past and motorsport racing can present, Cupra is a model successfully cooked up by committee in a company boardroom.
And but, because of Griffiths’ nostril for technique, positioning, and design, he was in a position to outgrow different upstart premium friends like Hyundai’s Genesis, Polestar of Sweden, France’s DS, and much more established gamers like BMW’s Mini.
Within the course of, he delivered consolidated turnover of €14.5 billion ($15.7 billion) and working revenue of €633 million final 12 months. Each are document highs for SEAT, lengthy an issue baby for mum or dad Volkswagen Group, puking up crimson ink 12 months after 12 months amid repeated rumors of a attainable shutdown. Greater than half of its complete 2024 income got here from Cupra alone, in line with its finance chief.
Key to that success was the turnaround a decade in the past by Jürgen Stackmann, who pushed an bold technique via Volkswagen to broaden into SUVs for the primary time in 2016 with the Ateca. Nevertheless it was Griffiths that has taken a restructured SEAT and turned it right into a stable revenue contributor led by Cupra.
In a LinkedIn publish on Tuesday, Griffiths shed no mild on what his subsequent transfer is after 37 years on the Volkswagen Group—or whether or not in reality he already had a brand new task lined up. Stellantis chairman and Fiat inheritor John Elkann is at present looking out for a brand new CEO, for instance.
“As my hero David Bowie said, ‘I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise you it won’t be boring,’” wrote the Mancunian at coronary heart.
A spokesman for Stellantis declined to remark to Fortune, reaffirming the corporate deliberate to announce a CEO earlier than the top of the present second quarter.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
