SEAT Bocanegra concept: Bocanegra concept

The next Seat Ibiza will be the first car in the VW group to use the new supermini platform which will also underpin the next Polo and the Audi A1. It's part of a plan to raise Seat's status and reinvent it as a maker of genuinely desirable cars with their own identity. Its design, and indeed its production-ready doors, were previewed at Geneva as the Bocanegra concept car even though the real thing will be launched as soon as May this year. The three-door Bocanegra came close to upstaging the Scirocco with its low, coupé-like stance and crisp lines drawn by Luc Donckerwolke, Seat's new design head. 'I started the design while I was still at Lamborghini,' said Donckerwolke. 'The design process is the same except that now I have to be a manager, too.' The visage of the Bocanegra – 'black mouth' – is inspired by that of the first unique Seat, the pretty 1200 Sport coupé of 1975 built during the era of Seat's Fiat clones. The 1200 had a black rubber rim around its nose, hence the Bocanegra nickname. Don’t expect to see anything similar on the production Ibiza, but we can expect much higher-quality interior trim than we've seen on Seats to date. The idea is that it should be an alternative brand, not necessarily a cheap one.