Adios SEAT Ateca and Cupra Ateca! Nissan Qashqai rivals get the chop
Mid-size SUV has been around for a decade, but Spanish brands have now finally pulled the plug on sales
The SEAT Ateca and its sportier sibling, the Cupra Ateca, have been cancelled 10 years after the SUV first went on sale. The Spanish brand says its Nissan Qashqai rival has been discontinued to “reflect local market decisions and ensure alignment with SEAT’s evolving range”.
However, investigations by Auto Express have revealed that the Ateca is still available to order from stock in both SEAT and Cupra forms, although it’s unclear how long this will continue.
The news comes as Cupra has seen a significant jump in its sales figures over the last few years, which has been matched by the decline in registrations for SEAT.
The SEAT Ateca was originally launched back in 2016 as the marque’s entry into the then rapidly-expanding mid-size SUV segment. The sportier Cupra Ateca debuted in 2018, marking the arrival of Cupra as a standalone brand, rather than just SEAT’s performance arm.
In an interview with Auto Express, CEO of Cupra and SEAT, Markus Haupt said that while the Ateca was a hit initially, there’s now other more profitable models to focus on. “Ateca is a car that we launched with lots of success,” Haupt said. “We even made the Cupra Ateca out of it… Now we have the Terramar that is complementary to the Ateca.”
In 2025, SEAT introduced a limited-run Ateca FR Black Edition model which boasted stealthy dark styling details, a powered bootlid and a 360-degree camera over and adobe the standard FR spec. That said, rivals from other brands have been heavily revised since the Ateca first launched, making the Spanish SUV feel dated compared with the competition. The Volkswagen T-Roc, on which the Ateca is based, has also recently undergone a significant overhaul, and now sits on a completely new hybrid platform.
At the same time, Cupra recently facelifted the Leon hatchback, as well as the Formentor SUV, to align visually with its new electrified options such as the Cupra Born and Tavascan EVs, plus the hybrid-powered Terramar SUV. The brand is also set to introduce the Renault 5-rivalling Raval to its line-up later in 2026, while the SEAT Ibiza, Arona and Leon will get hybrid powertrains over the next few years.
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