by Tom Stewart (10 Jun 10)

"We all want to help the environment but many of us aren't ready to drastically change the lifestyles we're used to. The good news is that, thanks to technology, we don't have to."

So says SEAT in its sales literature introducing its new range of extra green Ecomotive models; in this case the new León, Altea and Altea XL Ecomotives. As you may be aware, the current Ibiza Ecomotive has been on sale for a while now, and with CO2 emissions at 98g/km it is impressively planet-friendly. But let's take a moment to look at what it takes to turn an ordinary 1.6 TDI Leon or Altea into an Ecomotive.

Both these new models mark SEAT's first use of both Start/Stop and Brake Energy Recovery technologies. The Start/Stop system can be turned off or on by the driver, and when "on" the engine stops when the car is stationary and the driver has selected neutral and released the clutch pedal. As the driver depresses the pedal to select a gear, the engine automatically and quietly restarts. As I discovered, Start/Stop won't operate, for example, if the screen demister is switched on. The benefits of Start/Stop are obvious: fuel consumption and emissions are cut to zero while the car is stationary at lights or in a jam.

The Brake Energy Recovery system works by harnessing some of the energy generated from braking. In hybrid cars like Toyota's Auris HSD or Prius this energy helps to recharge their big battery packs, but in these conventional diesels the harnessed energy allows the alternator to work less hard, which in turn reduces load on the engine thus assisting mpg and reducing emissions.

In addition to the above both León and Altea Ecomotives have a gearshift indicator that tells you exactly when to change gear, and both are equipped with diesel particulate filters. The new Leon Ecomotive is also equipped with a few additional eco mods not on the Alteas such as a drag-reducing underbody panel, a blanked-off front grille and low rolling resistance tyres.

The upshot of all this is that the Leon Ecomotive has a CO2 figure of just 99g/km (10g/km lower than the conventional 1.6 TDI Leon). This means zero road tax, at least for the time being. At the same time fuel consumption is now officially 74.3mpg combined.

The Altea and Altea XL Ecomotives both return 62.8mpg combined while emitting 119g/km of CO2. Still pretty impressive, but I can only speculate that the heavier, more capacious Alteas were never realistically going to achieve the crucial sub-100g/km figure and so the Barcelona factory's engineers didn’t pull out all the stops as they did with the 99g/km Leon.

Despite all this verdant greenness I can report that both the León and Altea Ecomotives can pull the skin from a rice pudding, and a bit more besides. With 104bhp and 184lb/ft the new 1.6 TDI ecomotor makes exactly the same power and torque as SEAT's conventional 1.6 TDI, and, coincidentally, they're exactly the same as the older but still current 1.9 TDI's power figures. By way of further comparison, the bigger 1.9 TDI "only" manages 43.5mpg and 135g/km.

A good chunk of the SW London press launch test route was festooned with speed bumps and Gatso cameras (and was, coincidentally, in an area I know better than any other) and so driving with any urgency wasn't on the cards. On real-world roads like this the León will return a little over 50mpg, but both León and Altea Ecomotives have all the low- and mid-range punch we've come to expect of modern TDIs.

With moderate alertness, the León especially can be first in most traffic light Grands Prix, but for the record the performance figures are 0-62 in 11.5 secs and 118mph max (León) and 12.2 secs and 114mph (Altea). I didn't drive the Altea anywhere other than in a 30mph limit, but on the open road the León remains quiet, refined and well within its capabilities at all legal speeds. Both cars have conventional five-speed manual gearboxes, both have a progressive clutch action which allows for unusually smooth driving.

So, with laudable refinement, decent performance, low emissions and the León's theoretical 900-mile fuel range (make that 600 tops around town) you might be on the verge of placing an order, but I've not yet told quite the whole story. The León Ecomotive (VED Band A) for example will absolve you of annual road tax, and save some more on fuel, especially if you do a high mileage. But the SE 1.6 TDI CR Ecomotive I drove costs £18,045, or £430 more than the similar Band B, non Ecomotive version. At this level that's currently the equivalent of over 20 years of Band B Vehicle Excise Duty. And that's before we even started to consider the merits of, say, the £1545 cheaper 125PS SE 1.4 TSI.

These new Ecomotives are unquestionably good cars, but in the end it really all depends on your budget, your cash flow and whether you have petrol, diesel or chlorophyll coursing through your veins.

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