Seat gears up for Audi Q3 assembly at Spanish plant

If you're wondering what Audi has to do with Seat, allow us to fill in the blanks. Most essentially, the two are sister brands fall under the larger Volkswagen Group umbrella. Seat's flagship Exeo is essentially a re-bodied version of the previous-generation Audi A4. And when Audi was looking for the right place to build its upcoming Q3 compact crossover, it turned to the Spanish subsidiary.

In preparation for Q3 production to start, Seat is hiring over 700 new employees. Overall the company has undertaken the training of 1,200 new personnel, and if production requirements demand, could hire some or all of the remaining 500.

SEAT remains the only company in its sector with the capacity to fully design, develop, manufacture and market cars in Spain. A member of the Volkswagen Group, the multinational has its headquarters in Martorell near Barcelona, and exports around 75% of its production to 72 countries. SEAT in 2010 had a turnover of around five billion euros, with total sales of 339,500 vehicles worldwide.