1.5 eTSI or 1.5 eHybrid 204hp?

[flood360]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently in the process of buying a second-hand Cupra Leon ST (around 25–30k km), and I’ve run into a few questions during my research. I figured actual owners would be the best people to ask!

My main hesitation is about engine choice. Second-hand prices seem similar for the 1.5 eTSI 150hp and the 1.4 eHybrid 204hp. I’ve seen mixed feedback on the PHEV (limited electric range, lower performance once the battery is depleted).

-I mainly do 40km commutes, and I can charge at home. Would a full charge cover the round trip (80km total), or at least cover most of it?

-For longer drives, I get that the MHEV might be more consistent, but how much worse is the PHEV when running without battery? Is it noisier, thirstier, underpowered or all three?

-Finally, are there any notable maintenance costs or reliability concerns with the eHybrid system, or is it solid for most owners?

I've also read about issues with the infotainment system. I guess that's common across most recent VAG models. Is there a way to check if the car I'm looking at has the latest hardware/software version, or at least a stable one?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Have a great evening

 

[lsgraham]

I have the 245 version, and over 50mpg on motorway is easy even setting the battery to maintain say 20%.

 

[Mupwangle]

>>I’ve seen mixed feedback on the PHEV (limited electric range, lower performance once the battery is depleted).-I mainly do 40km commutes, and I can charge at home. Would a full charge cover the round trip (80km total), or at least cover most of it?

My Cupra is my second PHEV. There does seem to be some confusion on what people post about PHEVs. I could be very wrong here, but this is my personal experience.

When your PHEV "runs out of battery" it doesn't, it runs out of EV only power that you can force it to use over the ICE. On VAG cars it shows you the usuable charge as a percentage, on others, such as my Hyundai Tucson PHEV it shows the actual chrage percentage. On both, when I check how much my charger has put into the batteries it's usually about 80-90% of the stated max capacity.

On both the Cupra and Hyundai they drove exactly like a normal hybrid when there was no charge showing. The first trip we did in the car when we go it we kept it on EV mode to see how far it could go then swtiched to hybrid. This isn't the most efficient way to drive if you're going beyond the EV range. The following day I drove it harder than I probably should have on loads of country roads and then up the motorway and got 45mpg, which I thought was OK.

It's marginally noisier, as the petrol engine is on more, but not all the time and it'd not that noticeable. I didn't really notice that much of a performance change either, but it will certainly be less efficient than a normal hybrid as you're lugging around ~150Kg of batteries.

I think there have been a lot of people mis-sold PHEVs. When we bought the Cupra the guy tried to talk us out of it, but it fits where we go.

The car reports 360 miles range with a full tank of petrol. It's currently showing as 350 miles range and we've driven 1041 miles since we last put petrol in it.

If you're usually driving longer distances than the EV range, don't buy a PHEV.

 

[flood360]

Thank you both for the insights, I think I'll go for the PHEV once there's a good option on the second hand market!

 

[msmdraven]

Hey there!
I just picked up my 1.4 e-Hybrid 245 ST on Friday, and I couldn’t be happier with the purchase. It perfectly covers my daily range of about 40–50 km, and for longer trips, hybrid mode gives you plenty of torque to move comfortably

I know three acquaintances with the same powertrain, and they’re all quite happy with it too. Of course, the new 1.5 with the larger battery and extended range should be even better, but for my use case, the 1.4 is more than enough.

I'm switching from a Mk3 ST FR 150hp TDI. I just don’t need a diesel engine anymore for short everyday trips—it would only end up damaging the engine over time, even though I was quite happy with it overall.

I caught a pretty good deal on an 11-month-old car that I couldn’t resist. The difference with the newest powertrain was too big to justify the extra cost—it just wasn’t worth the investment