Now, please, with verve, so that no one overlooks the fact that Volkswagen is not neglecting the electrification of the volume models out of sheer enthusiasm for the modular electrical construction kit and its group-wide seedlings: To be absolutely sure in this regard, they have – by no means devoid of humor – the name eHybrid came up. Behind this is the weaker expansion stage of the plug-in hybrid range – whereby “less powerful” is probably more precise. The Seat Leon eHybrid shows advantages, but also limits of the concept.

New is the installation of the drive train in the Leon, not the drive itself. A 1.4 liter four-cylinder with 110 kW (150 PS) from the EA series, which has since been retired elsewhere 211. Overall, this is not a bad choice: elastic, quiet, mature and comparatively economical, it does its job. At his side in the Leon eHybrid is the six-speed double clutch transmission DQ e screwed with wet clutches. The electric motor is housed in the gearbox and offers 85 kW. Together there is a maximum of 150 kW (204 PS) and 350 Nm ready.

Lively In June we had a Leon 1.5 eTSI in our editorial office, whose harmonious interplay of drive and chassis was generally well received. The Leon eHybrid is with 1614 after all 253 kg heavier, which is definitely noticeable in the handling. Even with the pure driving performance it cannot stand out as clearly as there is a difference of 40 kW would suggest. In the sprint to Tempo 100 he is again faster, not at the top speed. Subjectively, both pack a lot when necessary, but I wouldn’t say that the hybrid can stand out here. The DQ 380 e also harmonizes with the drive, the switching times are well chosen and transitions – for a double clutch transmission – cleverly concealed.

Seat Leon eHybrid technology (6 pictures) Left the 1.4-liter gasoline engine, on the right the electric motor and the six-speed dual clutch transmission: there is not much space left here.

(Image: Florian Pillau) Either way, when it comes to driving performance, I think you are over-equipped. In normal road traffic, the available power will probably only rarely be used to the full. This raises the question of whether it wasn’t finally time to make the combustion engine smaller in plug-in hybrids – after all, Volkswagen has a conceivable candidate in its range with the one-liter three-cylinder.

The reason is probably psychological and comes from the marketing department: The technical effort of a plug-in hybrid is easier to price if the highest possible system performance can be shown. The madness is likely to go on for some time, although there are certainly signs of hope. Kia actually dared to develop a plug-in hybrid powertrain with “only” 104 kW of system power to be pushed into the sales rooms.

Although the Leon is more economically insulated than the current VW Golf, it is also considered in itself he’s a quiet car. Wind and rolling noises emerge a little more clearly than there. The latter may also be with the 18 – Continental inch winter tires on the test car, although I did not remember these from other cars as an unusual source of noise.

Battery and charging Of course, we also pay special attention in this test to the electrical component in the drive train dedicated. The price list indicates a nominal capacity of 11, 8 kWh. In the test we have between 11, 6 and 11, 8 kWh recharged – including charging losses, which of course are not taken into account in the consumption display in the car. Volkswagen is providing two charging options for this drive train, both of which only take place at a leisurely pace. The internal charger is designed to be single-phase. The maximum is reached at 3.6 kW on a wallbox. If you recharge via a 211 – volt socket, you can use 2, Calculate 3 kW – that is what a normal socket should be able to withstand as a continuous load. In the car, the charging current can be set from to 6 amps. Seat gives the loading times as 3 hours 42 minutes (3.6 kW) to 5h 48 min (2.3 kW) on.

Power consumption Seat states a power consumption of 14, 9 to 15, 4 kWh in the WLTP , the electrical range in this cycle should be 62, 8 km. We stayed a long way away from both values ​​in the test. With a lot of good will we came in just below 10 Degree Celsius overland according to the display in the instrument cluster on 19, 9 kWh / 100 km and a range of 48 km. Extrapolated from what we have reloaded, this results in a real consumption of 24, 2 kWh / 100 km. It was never less in our test, which is not unusual for a plug-in hybrid of this design. At higher temperatures, drivers who want it, should also be more than 50 km.

Even more could be achieved if the electric drive was separated from the combustion engine, i.e. only the rear wheels were driven separately. For this solution, however, there must be space in the rear, which must be planned in the design. In addition, this structure is more expensive and it becomes more difficult not to make the trunk even smaller. With its sole Combustion of Leon holds five-door 380 liters, in eHybrid remain just 270 left.

The fuel consumption without prior charging the battery was around 5.5 liters. We determined the experienced limits at just under seven liters on the motorway and well below five overland. The electrical part of the drive is then not ineffective ballast, because of course a load point shift is carried out here too, in order to let the gasoline engine work as often as possible close to its best point. In addition, particularly in hilly terrain, the opportunity to generate electricity instead of heat via recuperation is used intensively. This then leads to the fact that the Leon eHybrid drives more electrically than expected even without prior charging.

Seat has solved the visualization of the displays of how hard you accelerate and brake can to stay in E mode. Unlike what happened in the Mini Coutryman PHEV some time ago, the driver in the Seat can also rely on it. The instrument cluster gets criticism from me for the tiny fuel gauge and the confusing scaling of the speedometer. It is a nice move from Seat to also display the speed as a numerical value. But I would like it even better if the round instrument is between 60 and 100 km / h could be read off sensibly.

Infotainment is not completely convincing It may be related to the fact that a Mercedes CLA with MBUX was in the editorial office right in front of the Leon, but the infotainment system in the Leon is not completely convincing. For almost three years now, Mercedes has been demonstrating how well a very expensive factory solution can work. Volkswagen AG is probably right in assuming that most of its customers will not accept surcharges of more than 3000 euros . But if you want to ban almost all switches from the dashboard – the Leon does not have the four fixed speed selection buttons on the Golf – you should enclose excellent voice control.