Seat Won’t Be Launching An All-Electric Leon – And Here’s Why

The new generation Seat Leon will continue to be offered with a diversified range of powertrains, from the usual gasoline and diesel units to CNG and plug-in hybrids, but a full-electric model isn’t on the menu.

While this may come as a surprise to some, especially considering the Volkswagen Group’s major electric push, the truth is that the Leon is based on the MQB platform, like the latest VW Golf, Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia, and has been designed to support mostly internal combustion engines. For electric vehicles, the VW Group has the dedicated MEB architecture.

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2020 Seat Leon

The company’s chief of communications, Carlos de Luis, confirmed that a BEV variant of the new Leon will not happen. Quoted by PeriodismoDelMotor, the Seat exec reminded journos at the presentation of the car in Spain that the VW Group’s new EVs are based on the MEB platform and highlighted the fact that the Spanish brand does have a zero-emission vehicle: the Mii Electric. Furthermore, he said that another one might be around the corner, and if we were to take a guess, we’d say that it’s the Seat version of the Cupra el-Born, which is practically a more agile VW ID.3 with a different body.

The specs of the electric hot hatch are unknown, but we do know that it has an electric motor that drives the rear wheels and rockets it to 31 mph (50 km/h) in 2.9 seconds. It packs a 77 kWh battery that gives it an estimated range of 310 miles (500 km) and supports fast charging, with 30 minutes needed to achieve a range of 160 miles (260 km). The rumored Seat el-Born should be less agile, although the autonomy might be the same, more or less.