| First Drive | Barcelona, Spain | 2010 SEAT Leon & Altea Ecomotive |

As you'll probably already know, 'Ecomotive' is SEAT's particular version of that very vogue environmental branding thing carmakers do now to offer customers a conspicuous environmental choice; there's nothing like a nice green label to negate the gas-guzzling ignominy of hot hatches and dirty SUVs. People will pay handsomely for it too.

A cynic might suggest it's all a big fat scam to give car firms the chance to charge handsome premiums for what are essentially their basic models. And perhaps that used to be the case, but SEAT's new line of Ecomotive cars are far from underpowered and under-specced marketing ploys. They're actually very enticing.

In the Metal

This latest trio of green SEATs don't add a great deal to the cars on which they're based visually. They're marked out only by a couple of distinctions from the rest of the range. In fact, bar a badge or two, the Altea and Altea XL Ecomotives aren't any different to their regular counterparts. The Leon has undergone some visually apparent changes though, in the form of a closed grille for better airflow across the body, a lower front spoiler for the same reason, and wind deflectors in front of the tyres.

And for reasons we'll go into later, there's a halfway house Leon Ecomotive on the cards too: called the Ecomotive Technology, it features much of the fuel saving tech of the fully fledged Ecomotive but without the aerodynamic enhancements or equipment restrictions. And if the latter statement sounds odd, we'll explain in a moment.

What you get for your Money

Obviously not a 4.0-litre V8. All three Ecomotives come powered by the same 1.6-litre common rail TDI diesel with 104bhp, signalling the end of the gruff old 1.9 TDI powering the current green line-up. As well as the aerodynamic enhancements of the Leon we've just run through, all get Auto Start/Stop engine idle shutdown, brake energy recuperation and a five-speed gearbox with an optimum gear shift indicator. The Leon gets low rolling resistance tyres too. It's all standard eco-car stuff really, but it's tried and tested elsewhere and SEAT has utilised it all to good effect.

Interestingly, both the Leon and Altea will be offered in Ecomotive Technology guise (which we'll call 'ET' from now), which adds the start/stop, energy recovery and gearbox but allows you to go wild with the options list. We say that because, in an unusual but commonsense move, SEAT has opted to essentially put a maximum weight restriction on the Ecomotive cars proper by only allowing a certain number of options to be added. Go above a maximum weight of 1,320kg with the Leon, for example, and you'll be obliged to put the options list and the biro down. The ET version has no such limit, so you can add 18-inch rims as well as Bluetooth if you wish. That'll be handy for when you want to phone home. That's phone home with the ET. Yes.

Prices, SEAT still won't confirm, despite the cars going on sale before the end of this year (2009). 'Indicative pricing' for the Leon is £16,500, ditto the Altea, and a further £500 for the Altea XL. Ecomotive Technology cars will be available in a couple of specifications, although that's not quite decided yet either.

Driving it

This won't be a long paragraph because, we're pleased to report, the Ecomotives drive in a minimally compromised way, which is to say they're as smooth, quiet, and refined as you'd expect from cars powered by a VW Group 1.6-litre common rail diesel. The SEAT regulation modicum of sportiness remains too. We have to admit that during a packed day of driving we were unable to test the Altea, but the Leon, the Leon ET and the Altea XL were impressive in their familiarity.

The figures then. Amazingly, the Leon Ecomotive is a 99g/km car, exempting it from VED under the current rules. That also means it's capable of 74.3mpg combined (not an official figure just yet), which is quite spectacular for a family hatch. It's not quick, but by way of comparison, it feels tangibly stronger at lower revs than our similarly powered long term test Volvo S40 DRIVe does. For the record, 0-62mph comes up in 11.7 seconds.

Both the Altea and Altea XL make do with 119g/km CO₂ and 62.7mpg, although again, for big family cars they're significantly low numbers, and when April 2010's new VED rules come about, both cars will be exempt from road tax and first year 'showroom tax' too. Nice. The ET Leon sits in the middle, with its CO₂ rating 'homologated' on the EU test cycle at 109g/km, though in reality it'll be negligibly different to the Ecomotive, we expect.

Worth Noting

There's a very good fleet-based reason for SEAT to have so comprehensively pulled its green finger out with these cars - the user-choosers love a good eco-mobile. That point was amusingly proven during the cars' launch in Barcelona, when a SEAT PR boss mentioned to us that the firm had just secured its biggest ever fleet bonanza, taking an order of 500 brand new Leon Ecomotives from a 'well known blue chip company'. The spoilsports wouldn't say who, though, because the company itself hadn't given the green light to make it public yet.

Sadly, nobody told the Spanish PR department that, who during a press conference later that day gleefully blurted out that ******* had made an order for 500 Leon Ecomotives. Oops. Those stars are deliberate - we're sworn to secrecy. Intrigued? Didn't think so, but that's a good story, right?

Summary

SEAT has really done a good job with this new range of Ecomotive models, making then very green without really compromising anything of the regular versions' integrity or appeal. We particularly like the Leon because it moves the game forward over the outgoing Ecomotive in every way: cleaner, more refined and better performing, it now feels like a smart choice. There's a sense of inevitability about these cars - they fit the epoch we're in - but they still feel progressive rather than reactionary, which is to SEAT's credit.