These are the 8 cars that already 'speak' Catalan

BarcelonaAlthough Seat, Cupra's parent company, has been manufacturing its cars in Catalonia for 75 years, it had never before included the Catalan language option among those available for operating the infotainment system and other vehicle features. Albert Cuesta, a technologist and contributor to ARA, He had been battling there for almost a decade.Internal sources from the brand They had told him, after commissioning a study, Despite being a technologically possible option, the Volkswagen group's decision was to offer only infotainment options in the official languages of the main European markets, even though some of these languages had fewer speakers than Catalan.

Finally, following the work of the Alliance for the Digital Presence of Catalan (the platform that aims to strengthen the presence of Catalan in digital environments), they have announced an agreement with the company to incorporate Catalan into two of Cupra's electric models: the current Cupra Born (which is manufactured at the German plant in Zwickau) and the future RavalThe two new Cupra models, which will be manufactured in Martorell, are the first two Seat cars to feature the Android Automotive OS operating system, which supports over 100 languages. Older Cupra models will not be able to receive the update, but those equipped with this operating system will.

Besides being a new option in the market for private buyers, one of the consequences is that it will serve as an incentive for other brands: "We trust that this decision will not only be maintained in future models and spread to the rest of the Volkswagen Group, but will also serve as an example for other manufacturers," says Albert Cuesta, an expert at the A. Most cars are adopting Google's Android Automotive system, just as happened years ago with the smartphonesTherefore, it may be easier for companies like Volvo/Polestar, Renault/Nissan/Mitsubishi or Ford to incorporate Catalan from now on.

From now on, Cuesta points out, the language of the car will be an incentive for the public purchase of automobiles (police, firefighters, etc.), because until now it was a requirement that scores little points: "Now there is the possibility of promoting the local industry while respecting Catalan," he says.

The agreement stipulates that the operating system used in the Cupra Born and Cupra Raval from 2026 onwards will offer information, driver assistance, safety instructions, and messages in Catalan on the vehicle's touchscreens. In addition to Catalan, the new infotainment system for the Cupra Raval and Born, designed and developed at SEAT's Technical Center in Martorell, will also include Basque and Galician options. It remains to be seen whether this option will be extended to the rest of SEAT and Cupra models, and by extension, to the Volkswagen Group, which includes brands such as Porsche, Audi, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, and Lamborghini.

The pioneering brands

Brands like Tesla BYD had already overtaken Seat and Cupra models by offering Catalan among the multimedia options available to its users. Tesla was the first brand to integrate Catalan into its operating system five and a half years ago, thanks to a software update that offered all controls in Catalan and even enabled virtual conversations in Catalan with the American brand's cars. Tesla's voice commands, which Cupra has not yet incorporated, allow users to activate the windshield wipers or adjust the speed using their voice, among other functions such as calling a contact or setting a destination to activate the navigation system.

The Chinese manufacturer BYD was the second brand to integrate Catalan into all its models, thanks to an agreement reached earlier that year with the Alliance for the Digital Presence of Catalan and a language correction process overseen by Softcatalà. The procedure for including Catalan was very similar to Tesla's, involving an operating system update for the electric and plug-in hybrid cars built on the D100F platform. This includes affordable models such as the BYD Atto 3, BYD Seagull, BYD Dolphin, and BYD Seal, not only for Cupra's aspirational models but also for Seat's.

In any case, with the two new Cupra models, the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, and the four BYD models, there are now eight cars on the market (out of more than 100 vehicles for sale in our market) that offer the option to configure the car in Catalan. This is still an insufficient offering, but it represents a first step towards the normalization of the language. However, none of the best-selling models in the Catalan market (Dacia, Seat, Peugeot, Nissan, and Volkswagen, among others) currently offer the option to configure the vehicle in Catalan. The Alliance's agreement with Seat will make this easier.