MK4 Leon eHybrid 205PS in for review

Jimbobcook

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Evening All,

We've got the new plug in hybrid with us for a review if you'd like to drop any questions you may have or pictures you'd like more detail on we can hopefully sort then out for you.

All ready for a nice long drive tomorrow...
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dan555

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Wouldn't mind some photos of the electric/battery screens on the infotainment, and any more in the dash if there is any more differences.

A photo of the boot, would also be nice want to see how much space the battery takes up.

Thank you
 

Jimbobcook

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Wouldn't mind some photos of the electric/battery screens on the infotainment, and any more in the dash if there is any more differences.

A photo of the boot, would also be nice want to see how much space the battery takes up.

Thank you
Not a problem, I'll get you some pics and you can let me know if you need anything else getting.
 
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Jimbobcook

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Wouldn't mind some photos of the electric/battery screens on the infotainment, and any more in the dash if there is any more differences.

A photo of the boot, would also be nice want to see how much space the battery takes up.

Thank you
Some pics from the battery side of life...

I'll get better ones for the review.
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Jimbobcook

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Did a nice long drive today to test the battery and petrol...

Started
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Then did a trip into town (1 mile each way) on full electric which took it down to 88%.

Then drove till I needed a number one at a service station haha
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Then I arrived at said location
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Then drove home and started charging before taking a pic, the battery was on 2% after using the brakes a bit before getting home.
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vc-10

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Mar 29, 2016
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Cool, that's definitely a major advantage of plug-in cars. Being able to walk out to a warm car on a cold morning!

Edit: Possibly- I'm talking about cabin heat
 

Jimbobcook

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Cool, that's definitely a major advantage of plug-in cars. Being able to walk out to a warm car on a cold morning!
That's my hope, glad we have this in winter and not summer as none of the heated stuff would get used.

Heated steering wheel and seats were quite helpful this morning haha ill let you know how I get on
 

Jimbobcook

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OK so I should probably check the manual for pre warm up in the morning as mine didn't do anything I dont think, well the car wasn't warm but it wasn't cold either lol then I headed out to drop the wife off at work which is about 30 miles each way on the a47, A1 and some lovely rural roads that the lane assist isn't a fan of.

Drive there with the wife and ACC on the whole journey
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Drive back with no wife in the car and no ACC on but still sticking to the same speeds as previous (as much as possible without staring at the speedo), had it in sport to join the A1 and did a few spirited bits but not a lot of difference, I lost about 40% battery for each leg even using the battery for boost on joining the A1 etc.
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This car definitely prefers the 40-60mph range as 60-70mph doesn't seem to be very eco as my long drive on the A1 only saw 50mpg using ACC the whole way.
 

Philk

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Nov 19, 2020
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The photos you have taken are really interesting (particularly those showing the mpg over the long run you've done). Thank you.

We've just accurately measured (tank fill to tank fill) the MPG on 352 miles of mixed driving of our brand new non-hybrid 1.5 FR 150 (manual). The indicated mileage ("since refuel") showed 47.8 and the actual calculated on fuel put into the car was 44.8 mpg. This is likely to improve further once the car is more run in. On that basis, I would find it really difficult to justify the additional £5K purchase cost of the hybrid since extended real-world would appear to offer little difference in mpg. There is also then the reduced boot capacity which would have been a challenge with the collection of our son from University last weekend.
 
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corbu33

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Oct 24, 2020
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So 50 mpg for a 204 HP car I think is more than decent.

@Phil: all good in the logic except, it is 204 HP vs 150 and multi link suspension in the back, as for the boot, I took estate and problem solved. And I don't know exactly how is in the UK but in my country we get a 5000 EUR discount from the state... so for me is the same price 1.5eTSI DSG (150CP) vs 1.4 E-Hybrid DSG (204) & multilink suspension - so what would you choose :) ?

Anyway I have a question, noise insulation is different than other Seat Leon ? since it does not have a soundproof under the bonnet (a picture for confirmation would be interesting as well).

Also how do you feel the acceleration ?
 
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Philk

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So 50 mpg for a 204 HP car I think is more than decent.

all good in the logic except, it is 204 HP vs 150 and multi link suspension in the back, as for the boot, I took estate and problem solved. And I don't know exactly how is in the UK but in my country we get a 5000 EUR discount from the state... so for me is the same price 1.5eTSI DSG (150CP) vs 1.4 E-Hybrid DSG (204) & multilink suspension - so what would you choose :) ?

You are lucky with your state discount. Sadly, over here, there is no government grant on this particular model (to qualify, it would have to be able to travel for 70 miles on electric power only). As such, the list price of the FR Hybrid hatchback (£30,970) is £6,165 more expensive than the FR 150 hatchback (£24,805).

Re the performance, ours feels fine which could be explained by the the weight differential; the FR 150 hatchback weighs 1330kg whereas your 204 hybrid estate weighs 328kg more. That is a lot more weight for it to carry which is why the 0 to 60 time of the hybrid estate (when the battery is fully charged) is only 0.7s less than ours. As a company car, the hybrid carries a good tax incentive here. However, for a private buyer, the argument is not strong. You need to do a lot of battery driving to make up for the price difference!
 
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Jimbobcook

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The photos you have taken are really interesting (particularly those showing the mpg over the long run you've done). Thank you.

We've just accurately measured (tank fill to tank fill) the MPG on 352 miles of mixed driving of our brand new non-hybrid 1.5 FR 150 (manual). The indicated mileage ("since refuel") showed 47.8 and the actual calculated on fuel put into the car was 44.8 mpg. This is likely to improve further once the car is more run in. On that basis, I would find it really difficult to justify the additional £5K purchase cost of the hybrid since extended real-world would appear to offer little difference in mpg. There is also then the reduced boot capacity which would have been a challenge with the collection of our son from University last weekend.
I see your point of view and it is a hike in price, but the Plug in has some advantages for that cash I think... Just my opinion though...

- Town driving (start stop) is much easier and cheaper than a non electric as I assume that any town/city driving happens first when the car is cold
- Torque is much higher using battery with battery alongside pretty much 100nm
- Junction pull off is much easier when using battery power, some times near me I have to put my Cupra in Sport to get out of a quick junction just so the engine is ready to go when I need it.
- Also handy for those who live in locations that require low Co2 in the car like London for example (Plug in is 28 and 1.5 eTSi is 133)
- As it only has a 40L tank in comparison to the 1.5 50L tank it still manages 350 miles when driving 70mph for a majority of the tank (much more if it was 50-60mph driving)

I guess the downfall is as you mention it has a much smaller boot, only 30 mile range on battery etc but it all falls down to personal preference and the needs of the car, like you I like to have boot space which is why I have an estate as the Plug in's boot is way to small for me but would fit a reasonable sized food shop in it.

So 50 mpg for a 204 HP car I think is more than decent.

@Phil: all good in the logic except, it is 204 HP vs 150 and multi link suspension in the back, as for the boot, I took estate and problem solved. And I don't know exactly how is in the UK but in my country we get a 5000 EUR discount from the state... so for me is the same price 1.5eTSI DSG (150CP) vs 1.4 E-Hybrid DSG (204) & multilink suspension - so what would you choose :) ?

Anyway I have a question, noise insulation is different than other Seat Leon ? since it does not have a soundproof under the bonnet (a picture for confirmation would be interesting as well).

Also how do you feel the acceleration ?
Shame we don't get that discount but as mentioned above it's 70 miles on electric power to get any discount.

So in cabin noise on the 1.4 is minimal at best I think, i'll be doing in the cabin sound tests later today so I can give you proper results down to a db. But the Plug in is very quite I think as most of the time I don't notice the engine turn on. There is no sound proofing on the bonnet though (i'll get some pics later)

I've got the car till Thursday so any other questions let me know, i'll be doing a sound test today and get as many pics as possible before it goes back (after a clean)
 

vc-10

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Mar 29, 2016
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Whether a PHEV makes sense for an individual depends what sort of driving they do and whether or not they have somewhere to charge. It would make little sense for me, for example, because I have a 30 mile commute and can't plug in at work. If however I worked 10 miles away, then could do almost all my driving on electric, as I do have somewhere I could charge, and then just use hybrid mode for longer trips.

Even then, 50mpg is still damn good for a reasonably sized estate car with 200PS!
 
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Jimbobcook

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Whether a PHEV makes sense for an individual depends what sort of driving they do and whether or not they have somewhere to charge. It would make little sense for me, for example, because I have a 30 mile commute and can't plug in at work. If however I worked 10 miles away, then could do almost all my driving on electric, as I do have somewhere I could charge, and then just use hybrid mode for longer trips.

Even then, 50mpg is still damn good for a reasonably sized estate car with 200PS!
Exactly, but I do think that as the range is only 30 miles you may find yourself charging more often than most would like even though it doesn't take long to charge even from a normal 13amp socket.

Note that this car is a hatchback and not the estate so the figures above my drop with the extra weight of an estate. If you kept driving to 60 limits you'd get 60mpg I think using the hybrid which you could save 20% for town runs where the mpg would drop in a petrol.
 

vc-10

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Oh I thought you had an estate! Even so 50 mpg is decent.

The short range is why you absolutely need somewhere to charge every night. A friend of mine had an A3 e-tron, which is the same powertrain but with a slightly smaller battery. He could do his daily commute on pure EV (just) but he did have to plug it in every night.
 

corbu33

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Oct 24, 2020
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But kilo wise Estate is just 40kg (not even an adult) heavier than normal hatch so not that much... anyway... the 0,7sec @Phil is not only 0,7s in the 0-100 ... you can fell them differently at any speed, also accelerating more fun and powerful from 60 km/h or 140 km /h.... and being able to have this double personality for the care I like it very much. And the Nm of the electric on his own or helping with the boost :) is really fun and satisfying.

I am really curious on the noise test... but would have been nice if you also can compare it to other Leons/other cars in class.
 

Jimbobcook

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But kilo wise Estate is just 40kg (not even an adult) heavier than normal hatch so not that much... anyway... the 0,7sec @Phil is not only 0,7s in the 0-100 ... you can fell them differently at any speed, also accelerating more fun and powerful from 60 km/h or 140 km /h.... and being able to have this double personality for the care I like it very much. And the Nm of the electric on his own or helping with the boost :) is really fun and satisfying.

I am really curious on the noise test... but would have been nice if you also can compare it to other Leons/other cars in class.
I've got a noise test from the MK4 Leon 1.5 FR eTSI and mk2 Leon Cupra R, Mk3 Leon Cupra ST and a SEAT Mii so not a bad few tests to put it against.

All of that info will be in the reviews coming out soon.
 
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