Fight for scale

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Let’s get into it: The auto headlines have come thick and fast in the last week, but today we’ll consider the question of scale. The stories of three very different brands - Seat, McLaren and Ceer – illustrate how this plays a vital role in ensuring a brand’s survival.

Seat is a major mainstream brand with a bleak future as it loses scale and its owner Volkswagen figures out what to keep after its turnaround, while McLaren and Ceer are minnows pursuing scale in different ways.

Whether it’s Chinese automakers taking market share from legacy automakers, or startups trying to sell enough cars to bring down costs and lift profits, the fight for scale is back in focus across the industry and will be for the foreseeable future. Read below to see how executives at these companies are seeking to build or preserve scale and avoid falling into obscurity.

Which brings us to today’s Auto File…