SEAT Leon e-HYBRID: 5 reasons to pick it as a company car

Life – whether it’s work or play – is all about choice. Tea or coffee. Buy or sell. Smart or casual. But you don’t always need to choose between A or B. That’s especially true when it comes to picking your next company car. This is a case where the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID offers the best of all worlds.

Picking a company car is a decision you want to get right, because a company car isn’t only there to help you be more productive at work. It’s also a perk that enhances your life away from the office. A company car needs to seamlessly conquer the day-to-day of the working week, but also shouldn’t flinch in the face of a busy weekend with family or friends. Equally, whether it’s for work or play, you want a car that will cut your driving costs – both for you and your business. 

The SEAT Leon e-HYBRID almost certainly offers everything you’re looking for. It’s a sleek-looking plug-in hybrid that’s available as both a stylish five-door hatchback and a spacious highly practical estate, both of which are packed with lots of smart connected entertainment, navigation and safer driving tech.

Then, factor in low benefit-in-kind (BIK) rates of 12% for the 2024/2025 tax year^[1], a range of up to 40 miles on electric power allied to fuel economy up to 235.4mpg (WLTP combined)[2], and you can see how it hits the mark on every point.

Those are just a few of the reasons why the SEAT Leon has received a highly coveted five-star What Car? review and picked up What Car? Best Family Car awards in both 2022 and 2024. But let’s go into more detail. And – just like any smart business decision – it all starts with the pounds and pence.

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#1 Cost-effective to run

A company car is a clear perk of the job; a reward for hard work and great results. And the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID will make you feel better about that than most. That’s because while it absolutely looks the business, is sumptuous inside, and is great fun to drive, it manages all of this while cutting your driving costs. 

Thanks to its advanced plug-in hybrid powertrain, the SEAT Leon Hybrid has an official CO2 output of just 29g/km. This translates to a benefit-in-kind (BIK) rate of just 12% for the 2024/2025 tax year^[1].

As a result, your monthly outgoings for the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID hatchback will be as little as £72.11 if you’re a 20% taxpayer and £144.22 if you’re in the 40% band. If you choose the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID Estate, then a 20% taxpayer will pay just £74.82 per month, and a 40% taxpayer will pay £149.64. Equally, for fleet managers, strong residual values keep leasing costs down for your business. 

That means you can choose a higher, more feature-packed trim for even more rewarding style or tech. And SEAT has made that process incredibly easy with the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID’s streamlined trim line-up – which include metallic paint as standard, simplifying the choices you have to make and the BIK implications.

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What about driving costs? Well, as a plug-in hybrid, the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID has an all-electric range of up to 40 miles^[2]. That means most of your day-to-day drives can be done on cost-effective electric power and home charging alone. On longer trips, the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID balances the convenience of petrol with the combined efficiency of the electric motors, delivering an official fuel economy of 235.4mpg (WLTP). So, you’ll spend less time and money at the petrol station.
 
The SEAT Leon e-HYBRID is also VED road tax-free for the first year of registration and just £170 per year thereafter. You’re also exempt from urban Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) and Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges.

The standard three-year/60,000-mile warranty is comprehensive and long enough to last the life of most leasing programmes, while the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID’s battery is covered for eight years and up to 100,000 miles. And, of course, SEAT’s comprehensive network of more than 125 dealers across the UK means you’ll never have to travel far for the annual service or any ad-hoc maintenance work.

All of these cost-saving benefits add up quickly. So, if you want to know exactly how well the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID stacks up against its major rivals on total cost of ownership for you, a quick look at SEAT’s own online cost-of-ownership calculator will show you all the good news you want to see.

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#2 Enjoyable and easy to drive 

When it comes to everyday drives and epic journeys, the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID adds a lot of the benefits of electric driving, without adding any of the uncertainty, making driving both less stressful, and less of a burden on your wallet.

As most daily drives – whether commuting for work, doing the school run or the weekly food shop, or going to the gym or the cinema – are around 20 to 30 miles, they’re almost certainly easily covered by the up-to 40-mile electric range of the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID’s plug-in hybrid drivetrain. 

Using home, office or cost-effective public charging, you can plug in and top up your batteries at either end of your journey, meaning all your trips can be more electric and lower impact for a lower cost. You also get the benefit of a whisper-quiet and ultra-smooth electric driving, which is significantly more relaxing.

The SEAT Leon e-HYBRID doesn’t just excel on short trips. Thanks to its ability to blend petrol and electric power, it’s perfect for long journeys, too. Using the 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine, you never have to worry about on-the-go charging, meaning you spend less time and money topping up. But you also get the benefits of the electric motors on every journey – delivering up to 235.4mpg (WLTP) fuel efficiency^[2]. 

The e-HYBRID system does a wonderful job of keeping itself to itself, while the suspension soothes away the road surface to leave you unperturbed and relaxed. As a result, you’ll always arrive at the end of a work journey feeling fresh, relaxed and ready to do business. Or, you can get on with the business of having fun at weekends.

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#3 Perfectly practical (in every way)

Designers say that space is the ultimate luxury, and that’s where the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID amps up its premium company car credentials. Any good company car needs to be able to pack in plenty for work, and plenty more for life away from the office, too. Why? Well, as everyone knows, life comes packed with stuff. Big stuff, small stuff, awkward stuff. So, if your company car can provide you with plenty of places to put it all, then that’s all the better. 

In the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID there’s plenty of room for passengers, front and rear. The interior is also packed with helpful storage areas, so you can safely secure your phone, your keys, big water bottles, some mints and your coffee, without them rattling around or getting lost.

The boot is spacious, too, offering up to 270 litres of luggage space as standard, and even more when the 60/40 split rear seats are folded down. Practicality is further enhanced by the presence of a ‘ski hatch’ in the rear seats, which folds down at the tug of a lever to allow long, narrow items to be carried without affecting two passengers in the rear seats.

And that’s just the hatchback. If you need to carry even more stuff, then there are few finer options than the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID estate. It offers easy access to a long, large and square-sided 470 litres of luggage space as standard, letting you carry even more for work during the week, before packing in even more fun at the weekend. It truly is a car that allows you to work, rest and play.

Equally, SEAT’s extensive range of accessories includes lots of storage solutions for luggage or pets. And, if you want to pack even more in, there’s an extensive range of accessories includes roof boxes and racks for skis, surf boards and bikes.

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#4 Amping up every drive

That’s the practical company car stuff taken care of. But what about the fun factor? Well, the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID is sumptuously stylish; the sort of car that makes you want to glance back at it as you walk away, feeling proud that it’s yours.

Equally, the best company cars take the stress out of every journey and replace it with joy, and the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID is one of those cars. 

Need to travel from Manchester to London for a lunchtime meeting? Or maybe you need to drop the kids off at school on your way to work? Perhaps you’re travelling from Cornwall to Scotland for a family holiday. 

Whatever the nature of your trip, the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID is up to the task. The nature of its plug-in hybrid powertrain means it always delivers the right blend of performance and efficiency for any given situation – especially with the four drive modes (Normal, Sport, Eco and Individual), which let you tailor the car’s character and driving behaviour through the central touchscreen.

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So, if you’re doing a short local journey or edging through stop-start traffic, the electric system will make the most of the available battery power for up to 40 miles (WLTP) of serene and quiet low-impact electric drive^[2]. On the motorway, the 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine has the sort of performance that lets you make swift, serene progress, working with the electric motors to deliver enhanced fuel efficiency when appropriate.

And if you happen to encounter some quieter, twister roads on the way, then SEAT’s traditionally sporting handling character will let you make the most of them. As What Car? noted: “The Sports suspension really helps the SEAT Leon shine on twisty roads. This is a car that turns in keenly with little body lean, and the plentiful grip allows you to carry a surprising amount of speed through corners.”

Whatever the journey you face, the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID has a wide spectrum of abilities. The net result: you’ll arrive at journey’s end feeling relaxed and invigorated for what lies ahead. After which, of course, you get to enjoy the journey home, too.

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#5 A technical knockout

Renowned writer and inventor Arthur C. Clarke once said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic.” If that’s the case, the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID should star in a Harry Potter movie, because it is full of cutting-edge technology that transforms the tricky into the simple, and the exasperating into the exhilarating. On top of that, it has been designed to keep you and your family safe.

Features such as intelligent LED headlights with Dynamic Range Control and LED rear lights are there to help you see and be seen, while the standard 10.25-inch Digital Cockpit and 10-inch central touchscreen with satellite navigation and seamless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity keep you well-informed, entertained and on the right track. Wireless charging also lets you keep your phone topped up on the move. 

If you don’t want to take your eyes off the road, you can simply use the intuitive voice control to speak to your SEAT Leon e-HYBRID, and it will do whatever you command. For example, if you tell the system: “I’m feeling too hot”, it will turn down the tri-zone climate control system to make you more comfortable.

Then, when you get to the end of your journey, the standard Park Assist system can steer your SEAT Leon e-HYBRID into a space for you. Magic? Maybe not. But spellbinding? No question.

As we said at the start, life’s all about choices, and the right choice of fleet vehicle is one that will enhance your life. And that’s where the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID stands out. Not only in how it performs on the road, but how it performs on the checklist and on the balance sheet, too.

Learn more about the SEAT Leon e-HYBRID

[1] Figures were obtained using a combination of battery power and fuel. Mains electricity required for charging. Figures shown are for comparability purposes; only compare fuel consumption, CO2 and equivalent all-electric range figures with other vehicles tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real life driving results.

[2] Based on 2023/24, 2024/5 Benefit-in-kind rates.