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Plug-in hybrid hatch holds tax appeal for fleet drivers but will others be drawn to it?

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The Seat Leon has always been an interesting but quite ordinary hatchback. Of the last-generation version, there were some shopping-trolley versions and, later on, some very fruity versions indeed, and you could buy it with four-wheel drive and as an estate. However, in fundamental terms, it was an easy car to understand and, being well resolved in dynamic concerns right across the board, also easy to drive.

Early impressions of the new, fourth-generation Leon are that it retains better than average looks and continues to offer a quietly satisfying driving experience, but elsewhere things have changed. The breadth of the Leon line-up has grown substantially, and not only is there new technology never before seen on this model but, in Cupra, an entirely new brand has also entered the fray.

Bucking the trend of an entire industry, the Leon’s grille remains sensibly and neatly sized and is all the better for it. The lower portion shows the radar sensor panel that supports the car’s gamut of new safety technology.

The standard range now begins with a 1.0-litre TSI petrol engine supplied by Volkswagen. The notable development is that you can also have it in mild-hybrid eTSI form, with a 48V belt-driven starter-generator that provides brake-energy recuperation, coasting ability and a modest power boost when moving off the mark. The same applies to the 1.5-litre TSI petrol, although the sole diesel in the range is an unelectrified and, despite the fresh internals and lowest-ever emissions, almost relic-feeling 2.0-litre TDI.

But the new Leon also represents Seat’s first dive into what you might call the ‘substantially’ electrified arena, and the 1.4-litre eHybrid PHEV breaking that ground is the subject of this week’s road test. It’s easily the most compelling model in the range on paper, but we’ll shortly discover how it fares in the real world.

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What might confuse those who, understandably, may not have their finger on the pulse of all things Leon is what has happened to Cupra. What started as Seat’s answer to VW’s GTI sub-brand with the Ibiza Cupra of 1996 is, as of 2018, a fledgling brand of its own, but one still heavily reliant on Seat hardware. It therefore makes its own hot take on our Leon eHybrid and will eventually expand the Cupra Leon range to include 242bhp, 296bhp and 306bhp models with different drivelines and bodystyles.

Truly, there will be a Leon for every occasion, but today we focus on the regular, if also somewhat irregular, plug-in hybrid.

The Leon line-up at a glance

Seat’s UK Leon range effectively contains three petrol engines, each available with varying degrees of electrification, and one solitary diesel. Paying extra for a mild-hybrid version of either of the lower-end petrols also gets you a dual-clutch automatic gearbox but, oddly, doing that doesn’t actually get you a lower-emissions car.

There’s a seven-rung trim line-up, starting with SE and finishing with Xcellence Lux.

Price £30,970 Power 201bhp Torque 258lb ft 0-60mph 7.2sec 30-70mph in fourth 9.3sec Fuel economy 43.6mpg CO2 emissions 27g/km 70-0mph 45.9m

What Car? New car buyer marketplace - Seat Leon

DESIGN & STYLING

Seat Leon eHybrid 2020 road test review - hero side

Plug-in hybrids have the potential (and we do put an emphasis on that word) for stratospheric fuel economy figures. This isn’t news. But because of their dual power sources, these cars are often also ‘accidentally’ pretty brisk, and the Leon eHybrid is no different.

In the world of quick hatchbacks, the Seat’s combined 201bhp and 258lb ft – courtesy of the 1.4-litre petrol engine and an electric motor that drive through the same six-speed dual-clutch gearbox – place it behind front-drive front-runners such as the VW Golf GTI but not out of sight.

Contoured rear lenses are straight from the Porsche playbook, as is the dramatic LED light bar that joins each side of the car and makes the Leon unmistakable at night. FR trim adds dynamic indicators.

Were it a morsel or two lighter than the eye-opening claimed kerb weight of 1539kg, which is 335kg heavier than the entry-level Leon 1.0 TSI Evo, it would probably break the 7.0sec mark for 0-62mph. As it is, 7.5sec and 235.4mpg are your headline figures – although we should award some credit for this car beating the Mercedes-Benz A250e we weighed earlier this year by more than 100kg.

The car’s 12.8kWh lithium ion battery pack sits beneath the back seats, with the fuel tank having been displaced to below the boot floor. It gives the Leon eHybrid, which also comes in estate form, an official WLTP electric range of between 36 and 40 miles, with just under four hours needed to fully recharge its cells using a wallbox charger.

The charge port itself uses a Type 2 AC connection capable of 3.6kW speeds and lies just behind the offside front wheel, as it does on the Golf eHybrid, which isn’t coming to the UK but donates much of its hardware.

The shared hardware extends further, to the Volkswagen Group MQB platform and the majority of the suspension elements that hang from it. The Leon eHybrid uses front suspension struts, but it’s the only Seat-badged Leon in the current range to get a multi-link rear.

Most trim levels are fitted with passive dampers, although FR First Edition cars get DCC adaptive dampers as standard. FR-trim cars with other powertrains use lowered sports suspension but the eHybrid sticks with standard springs.

INTERIOR

Seat Leon eHybrid 2020 road test review - cabin

The VW Group’s latest generation of family hatchbacks has met with mixed reports in road tests this year. While the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf and latest Skoda Octavia managed to convince us that the group’s high standards for perceived quality are broadly on course to be upheld (albeit in cabins quite radically overhauled for control regime and layout), the Audi S3 we tested more recently struggled a little to prove it merits its premium.

With the Leon, your expectations are a little lower. We’re well used to these sporty, bargain-priced Seats representing something of a compromise on wider VW Group ambient quality standards, but compensating for it with equipment, sound ergonomic layout, space and a gently compelling driving experience. And the latest Seat Leon does some of that – but not quite all.

‘Haptic slider’ for climate control temperature and audio volume divides opinion on usability but one thing is agreed on: it should be backlit for night use.

The interior design does its best to make up for some quite uninspiring mouldings with a sharply drawn and quite sculptural style. The major features, from air vents to grab handles, are bold and eye-catching. It’s only by looking at them closely, and subjecting them to the touch test, that you realise many of them are surprisingly plain and hard.

At mid-level FR grade, where the Leon eHybrid opens up for business, you get Seat’s enlarged, 10.0in touchscreen infotainment system (which is mostly great to look at and, with familiarity and a few exceptions, easy enough to use) as well as fully digital instruments.

Wireless smartphone charging is standard, too, as is wireless Apple CarPlay functionality, plus wired mirroring for other formats. If you’re a younger buyer who likes digital technology, that’s likely to appeal plenty on a car that only narrowly breaches the £30k threshold. Plump for a different powertrain as a private buyer and you can have the same cabin spec, with a choice of petrol power, for under £24k.

There’s a familiar plug-in hybrid drawback, though. Because of the necessary relocation of the petrol tank, below-the-cover boot capacity falls to a supermini-sized 270 litres, which is a penalty of more than 25% on what you might have otherwise. That’s a bigger compromise than an A250e imposes – and that car has a bigger battery. In practice, though, all you really lose is the space that would otherwise be available under the Leon’s variable-height boot floor.

Seat Leon infotainment and sat-nav

Provided you don’t go prodding the screen immediately after you’ve started the car on a cold day, the Leon’s infotainment system works nicely. The graphical sophistication of its 10.0in touchscreen is excellent and its responsiveness is generally very slick.

Mapping information is presented in a clear and detailed fashion, while the system itself is easy to learn and navigate. You can search for charge points and fuel stations and receive up-to-date traffic information seamlessly, too. However, with wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto as standard, there’s every chance you’ll just use those interfaces instead. As swish as the system may be, there are a few gripes.

There aren’t any standard USB 2.0 ports in the cabin, so you’ll need a USB-C cable if you can’t charge your phone on the wireless pad. Certain controls are hidden beneath too many submenus, too. It can take up to three inputs to change drive modes, for instance, a reality that’s annoying at best and downright distracting at worst.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Seat Leon eHybrid 2020 road test review - charging port

The Volkswagen Group’s 1.4-litre plug-in powertrain is by now fairly well known to us and its latest application in Seat’s mainstay hatch is, for the most part, successful.

Provided its 12.8kWh battery is sufficiently charged, the car will default to electric mode on startup. Throttle response in such use is precise and the electric motor is punchy enough to bring the Leon up to urban speeds swiftly, but not quite with the same sense of urgency as you’d find in a bona fide EV. Still, it feels markedly brawnier than the likes of the Kia Ceed PHEV does during zero-emissions running.

There isn’t the dynamic verve displayed by past Leons and the PHEV’s extra weight is noticeable, but it’s still a tidy, competent car in corners and rides decently enough.

Meanwhile, the regenerative braking system isn’t particularly intrusive, so while there isn’t much scope for one-pedal driving, you can at least come off the throttle to coast in a bid to further improve efficiency.

That said, the Leon will begin to ramp up its stopping power if it detects a slowing car in front of you, or if you’re approaching a junction. This feels a bit strange at first, but it’s easier to get used to than we found in the A250e. The brake pedal itself is nicely calibrated in its responses, too.

Seat claims a WLTP electric range of 36-40 miles, but it’s more likely to be closer to the high 20s or low 30s in real-world use. However, in early-morning rush hour, in a 12deg C chill and on London roads where speed limits vary from 20mph to 40mph (challenging conditions, for sure, but conditions where a PHEV really needs to show its mettle), our testers were able to extract just 26 miles from the Leon’s battery.

That range is likely to be fine for a great many people, but it’s still a bit underwhelming given Seat’s claim. Nevertheless, the manner in which the car juggles its electric and petrol power sources when running in hybrid mode is impressively slick.

The combined performance that the power sources give the Seat is commendable, too. It hit 60mph from a standstill in 7.2sec, while the run from 30mph to 70mph was dispatched in 6.2sec. However, as effective as the 1.4-litre petrol engine might be in getting the Leon up to speed, it doesn’t seem quite as refined here as it does in some of the larger plug-in models in the VW Group portfolio. It’s fairly noisy even at lower revs, and if you really feel inclined to wring it out, its noise and vibration can become quite uncouth.

RIDE & HANDLING

Seat Leon eHybrid 2020 road test review - cornering front

This Leon doesn’t quite feel like the zesty, slightly more fun-friendly member of the VW Group family hatch line-up that we’ve encountered in previous generations. It’s neat and tidy enough in its responses, with good front-end grip and intuitively paced and weighted steering that lets you guide its nose through bends with precision.

You get a pretty clear sense through the thin, firm steering wheel of how the car’s outside tyres are loading up beneath you and there’s even some scope for throttle-induced mid-corner line trimming if such things take your fancy.

FR-spec Leon eHybrid wears 17in two-spoke wheels and tyres with generous 45-section sidewalls. FR Sport ups to ante with 19in Performance alloys, although we’d be wary of the implications for the ride quality

But the experience is all only averagely dynamically flavoursome for the hatchback market, and past its undoubtedly well-rounded handling manners the Leon doesn’t offer much additional flare or panache to really distinguish it from its platform-mates. The eHybrid’s shunning of Seat’s lowered and stiffened spring rates is no doubt a factor here; likewise Volkswagen’s decision to sharpen up the latest Volkswagen Golf for handling appeal, and thereby arguably inject a degree more homogeneity into the group’s hatchback portfolio. So, too, frankly, is the added weight that this car carries, as a result of its electrified powertrain, of which you remain conscious through particularly quick directional changes and over larger vertical inputs.

For all the Leon’s competency and worthiness, in plug-in eHybrid guise it doesn’t feel quite as able to trade on a heightened sense of vim and vigour as its predecessors have. The current Ford Focus may not yet be offered with a plug socket, but on this evidence its claim to the title of being the driver’s choice in the mainstream hatchback market isn’t under any threat from the Spaniard.

The Leon dealt with Millbrook’s Hill Route pretty matter-of-factly. Grip levels are by no means unlimited, but once reached and then exceeded, the car can be brought back under control without much need for dramatic inputs. A slight lift of the throttle will tuck its nose back in after understeer sets in, while a larger lift can bring its rear axle into play for a short-lived and easily controlled slither of cornering attitude.

During particularly quick directional changes, the chassis is guilty of some momentary hesitation, but for the most part it follows your inputs without any pause. The car’s weight is at its most noticeable here. Sharper bends unearth a fair amount of body roll and dips make the car compress on its springs quite markedly.

The transmission can be frustrating during hard driving, with early upshifts leaving you in a higher gear than you’d ideally like on corner exit and slow manually selected downshifts annoying a little.

Comfort and isolation

For the most part, the Leon eHybrid conducts itself with reasonable civility on the road. Run it over a drain cover or expansion joint and the resulting impact is soaked up effectively, if not quite with the same rubber-footed pliancy of its Golf stablemate. Suspension noise remains pretty well muffled, however, and the car keeps enough wheel travel in reserve to ensure it can resist being bucked off course by mid-corner bumps.

That said, the car’s ride can succumb to a certain level of fussiness on particularly rough surfaces. At lower speeds, this mild pitter-patter seems to concentrate around the rear axle, while greater pace will unearth a head-toss-inducing lateral stiffness likely caused by the car’s sheer mass once it’s disturbed. And although it’s far less conspicuous, this subtle fidgeting is nonetheless detectable out on the motorway, too.

Meanwhile, faster, more undulating sections of road can uncover a notable degree of float, but it’s a credit to the Leon that it never seems to struggle to rein in these vertical movements. In fact, this willingness to let its body rise and fall in step with the road under wheel only adds to its comfort levels at everyday cross-country speeds.

Unfortunately, we were unable to measure with our sound meter how loud the cabin was at speed. While the level of road roar generated by the car’s Goodyear tyres was certainly noticeable, it wasn’t so vocal as to seem worse than the class average.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Seat Leon eHybrid 2020 road test review - hero front

The Leon eHybrid has two jokers to play for fleet drivers: the barely breached £30k price it has in FR trim and the 6% benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax qualification that its 40-mile electric range qualifies it for.

Those two factors together mean that a company car driver paying 20% income tax could run it for as little as £31 a month in BIK alone. And while Skoda is due to bring both upper- and lower-end latest-gen plug-in hybrid versions of its new Skoda Octavia to the UK market, VW is set to leave the Golf eHybrid off the UK price lists, putting all its PHEV hatchback eggs into the GTE’s basket – and that should certainly leave extra room for this Leon to breathe in UK sales terms.

Leon equipment levels are impressive, as we’ve mentioned earlier. Euro NCAP has yet to release its crash test data on the car and the eHybrid ’s UK insurance groups are also still to be announced – although, if the VW Group’s other PHEV options are any guide, the insurance groups should be only slightly higher than for a mid-level petrol option.

Where running costs are concerned, your real-world fuel economy will be whatever you make it. Our average test fuel economy return reflected the fact that overnight charging of the car at the time of our test happened mostly to be impossible.

What Car? New car buyer marketplace - Seat Leon

VERDICT

Seat Leon eHybrid 2020 road test review - static

If this Leon eHybrid looks to you like a perfectly agreeable, smart and modern family hatchback, perhaps you won’t be surprised or disappointed by a driving experience to match that billing. For the potentially large fuel and tax savings it affords, for the respectable way it conducts itself on the road and for its fairly spacious cabin and appealing in-car tech, this car covers plenty of bases – and covers them well.

Trouble is, it does so without much of the pep or spirit that was always detectable in its predecessor. Sure, the Seat Leon is still a handsome car, but somehow it looks more derivative than its characterful, edgy forebear. Dynamically, it conducts itself pretty blamelessly, but there’s little about the way it drives that captures your attention. And although that hybrid powertrain is fairly swift and efficient, neither peppy performance nor polished refinement is ultimately a calling card for it.

Competent and efficient but verges on being forgettable to drive

This is a very respectable plug-in hybrid hatchback and it’s easy to recommend, but mere competency can take it only so far. What is undoubtedly a good Leon won’t be a car that interested drivers seek out in the way they might the very best PHEVs.

What Car? New car buyer marketplace - Seat Leon

Richard Lane

Richard Lane, Autocar
Title: Deputy road test editor

Richard joined Autocar in 2017 and like all road testers is typically found either behind a keyboard or steering wheel (or, these days, a yoke).

As deputy road test editor he delivers in-depth road tests and performance benchmarking, plus feature-length comparison stories between rival cars. He can also be found presenting on Autocar's YouTube channel.

Mostly interested in how cars feel on the road – the sensations and emotions they can evoke – Richard drives around 150 newly launched makes and models every year. His job is then to put the reader firmly in the driver's seat.