1.4 TSI IV - how does it work?

[Yazza54]

Hi guys, I am in the market for a new car and have just been to the local Skoda dealership for a nosey, Mrs had a Karoq pre COVID and only got rid due to doing barely any miles and residuals were so high it made sense to get rid for two years... But we both liked the car so thought I'd have a look in there.

Initially went in with the intention of a Kodiaq sportline to replace my Freelander 2... drove a 69 plate 2.0tdi one and it was alright, I did like it but it just felt like a bigger version of what we had before and the interior etc was all exactly the same. Felt a little too familiar for a new car.

Decided to have a nosey at the superbs and Octavia's and was surprised by the amount of boot space. Initially wanted another SUV but when I saw how much space they had I figured this may be as good if not better.

They had a lovely blue 2021 VRS Octavia in, and for the right money. Really nice trim being the VRS bit also the latest interior, screen etcso an upgrade on what we used to have.

Price seemed good, same kinda of money as the Kodiaq... So I asked what is this, 2.0 petrol or diesel? No he says 1.4 TSI hybrid. At that point I am totally deflated but he insisted that I wouldn't be disappointed by it so I asked him to get the keys and let me see for myself.

Fully expecting to hate it but I have to say I was really pleasently surprised, it picked up really well. Didn't feel laboured and hid it's mass and small engine very well.

So now I am thinking this may actually be a great idea, but I'm a bit worried about what happens when the battery gets depleted being a plug in hybrid?

As in, if the battery is ran down during a journey, am I then stuck with a chunky estate car with only 140 odd horsepower, i.e. no electric motor boost?

I am not buying this thing for its sporty credentials but I want a good all round vehicle and would not entertain such a small engine in such a big car ordinarily.

I appreciate they can't do many miles on electric only but going to the shops on electric should be viable, but to be honest I'm not that bothered about this, I just don't want to find myself in something that's only spritely when the battery is charged as I may as well just buy a 2.0 diesel or petrol if that's the case.

Anyone here got any real world experience of these VAG hybrids and want to either talk me into or out of it??

Cheers

[SteBrown91]

Ultimately it will be a heavy car with a small engine once battery is depleted, but it always holds back enough and charges from the engine/regen braking to ensure you get a bit of electrical assistance. You can configure how you want it to use the electric motor, so you can set a level of charge to maintain or get the engine to charge the battery etc to ensure you have a reasonable amount of battery for EV only driving when you get to local areas.

I don’t know if this is the case with the 245ps engine in the Octavia/Golf GTE but the 218PS engine in the Passat/Superb can be remapped to around 200 bhp if you are concerned it will be gutless without the electric motor

[Yazza54]

Cheers for that, yeah having battery left for electric only driving at the end of a journey isn't really a concern. I was just wondering whether this was a way of getting 2.0tsi performance with 1.4 economy, but worried about what happens when the battery is depleted.. i.e. am I left with a slug of a thing!

[Hoofy]

I was curious so decided to google.

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/electric-and-hybri...

Check out the paragraph on hybrid driving modes.

[Yazza54]

Cheers, I suppose once on the motorway the eco mode is fine. Assuming if you do need to boot it, it gives you the battery boost. Feels a bit complicated, I don't like to think too hard when I'm driving!

[Sheepshanks]

Yazza54 said:

As in, if the battery is ran down during a journey, am I then stuck with a chunky estate car with only 140 odd horsepower, i.e. no electric motor boost?

Don't know much about these as monitor a Tiguan forum and most people who'd ordered them waited ages (like 12mths+) and then cancelled when the price went over £40K as they didn't want to pay the higher road tax for 5yrs.

From odd things I've read I think they don't (or at least, aren't supposed to) run out of electric completely - one owner talks about doing a long motorway journey and boost always being available.

[sjg]

Had a Golf GTE. Even if you run in the default e mode until you can’t any more and it goes to hybrid mode, there’s still a buffer it keeps for when you need a bit of performance. You only catch it out if you’re in that state and do a few hard accelerations without time to recover in between.

GTE mode seemed to keep about 10 miles of battery (using the motor to top up if lower) so it could manage more acceleration without the chance of depleting it.

Didn’t seem to make much of a difference to overall economy as long as you always aimed to start with battery full (plugged in) and end empty.

[heisthegaffer]

I've got a Cupra Formenter hybrid which is similar.

It's fantastic. In hybrid it'll do well over 60 mpg and is a lot quicker than I expected. It can feel a bit strained at really high revs so I find manual in sport mode using a higher gear suits it better, using the torque of the engine and electric motor.

[Yazza54]

Sheepshanks said:

Yazza54 said:

As in, if the battery is ran down during a journey, am I then stuck with a chunky estate car with only 140 odd horsepower, i.e. no electric motor boost?

Don't know much about these as monitor a Tiguan forum and most people who'd ordered them waited ages (like 12mths+) and then cancelled when the price went over £40K as they didn't want to pay the higher road tax for 5yrs.

From odd things I've read I think they don't (or at least, aren't supposed to) run out of electric completely - one owner talks about doing a long motorway journey and boost always being available.

I read the same thing, can't really get my head around how it can deliver full power with a depleted battery.

The condundrum is that ultimately I can buy a 2.0 TSI VRS, or Leon estate cupra, or a 310hp formentor for the same money... Granted the economy will be considerably worse.. hmm

[LukeSi]

Couple of people I know report sub 30 mpg if the battery runs out. Just to throw that in there. That's doing 70 on the motorway so I imagine even worse around town.

[Yazza54]

LukeSi said:

Couple of people I know report sub 30 mpg if the battery runs out. Just to throw that in there. That's doing 70 on the motorway so I imagine even worse around town.

Ouch

[p4cks]

Similar to another poster, I had a Golf GTE. Great MPG for short distances which is the majority of driving these days.
Motorway mileage is poor by comparison. A 70 mile round trip for me, 95% motorway only gave me 53mpg (driving like Miss Daisy) which you can get from a diesel A lot easier.
Also, the thing weighs quite a bit so if/when the battery is flat the MPG falls off a cliff.
Finally, I found the charging a faff around. Yes it’s fairly straightforward to plug the thing in but when it’s pissing down with rain or snow the last thing you want to be doing is fannying on with the charge cable.

[Sheepshanks]

Yazza54 said:

I am not buying this thing for its sporty credentials but I want a good all round vehicle and would not entertain such a small engine in such a big car ordinarily.

Just on that point, they do Octavia with the 3cyl 1 litre, don't they?

Daughter has that engine in an Ateca, and it's obviously not a ball of fire, but it goes well enough.

[Yazza54]

Sheepshanks said:

Yazza54 said:

I am not buying this thing for its sporty credentials but I want a good all round vehicle and would not entertain such a small engine in such a big car ordinarily.

Just on that point, they do Octavia with the 3cyl 1 litre, don't they?

Daughter has that engine in an Ateca, and it's obviously not a ball of fire, but it goes well enough.

Not sure but that sounds pretty horrendous! I suppose there's nippy and then there's grunt. It may be nippy but it can't be nice for things like getting up to speed on the motorway, overtaking when needed etc.

[Sheepshanks]

Yazza54 said:

LukeSi said:

Couple of people I know report sub 30 mpg if the battery runs out. Just to throw that in there. That's doing 70 on the motorway so I imagine even worse around town.

Ouch

From other stuff I've seen (and the poster above) that doesn't seem right at all - maybe they're driving them in the wrong mode or something.

BIL had a Lexus RX450h and he was told he'd get similar overall MPG to his BMW diesel. So he's a bit dismayed that on long motorway runs it's doing high 20's MPG. But it's biggish SUV with a 3.5 litre V6 petrol - and he drives at 85 where possible. Sub 30 in a Golf at 70 would be truely terrible.

[Sheepshanks]

Yazza54 said:

Not sure but that sounds pretty horrendous! I suppose there's nippy and then there's grunt. It may be nippy but it can't be nice for things like getting up to speed on the motorway, overtaking when needed etc.

I think that's more psychological than anything else - we just changed wife's 2 litre diesel Tiguan for a 1.5 petrol Karoq, both DSG. Same 150PS power and the Karoq is slightly faster on paper but it's obviously got way less torque. The diesel just felt completley effortless in normal driving - but it soon ran out of steam if you pushed it.

[Yazza54]

Sheepshanks said:

Yazza54 said:

Not sure but that sounds pretty horrendous! I suppose there's nippy and then there's grunt. It may be nippy but it can't be nice for things like getting up to speed on the motorway, overtaking when needed etc.

I think that's more psychological than anything else - we just changed wife's 2 litre diesel Tiguan for a 1.5 petrol Karoq, both DSG. Same 150PS power and the Karoq is slightly faster on paper but it's obviously got way less torque. The diesel just felt completley effortless in normal driving - but it soon ran out of steam if you pushed it.

Interesting

I drove a 2.0 diesel karoq yesterday and it felt a bit dopey. Seemed to go ok once it go going but slow on the uptake.

[LukeSi]

Sheepshanks said:

Yazza54 said:

LukeSi said:

Couple of people I know report sub 30 mpg if the battery runs out. Just to throw that in there. That's doing 70 on the motorway so I imagine even worse around town.

Ouch

From other stuff I've seen (and the poster above) that doesn't seem right at all - maybe they're driving them in the wrong mode or something.

BIL had a Lexus RX450h and he was told he'd get similar overall MPG to his BMW diesel. So he's a bit dismayed that on long motorway runs it's doing high 20's MPG. But it's biggish SUV with a 3.5 litre V6 petrol - and he drives at 85 where possible. Sub 30 in a Golf at 70 would be truely terrible.

What they've told me is with the hybrid battery fully charged they're doing 60-70mpg, as soon as it runs out its sub 30.
Both Cupra's, one a Formentor the other a Leon.

[Hoofy]

Yazza54 said:

Sheepshanks said:

Yazza54 said:

I am not buying this thing for its sporty credentials but I want a good all round vehicle and would not entertain such a small engine in such a big car ordinarily.

Just on that point, they do Octavia with the 3cyl 1 litre, don't they?

Daughter has that engine in an Ateca, and it's obviously not a ball of fire, but it goes well enough.

Not sure but that sounds pretty horrendous! I suppose there's nippy and then there's grunt. It may be nippy but it can't be nice for things like getting up to speed on the motorway, overtaking when needed etc.

Yes, tried a Golf 1.0 eTSI and there's nothing wrong with it but if your hearing is fine, you won't want to rev it over 4000rpm. It just sounds like someone's dragging a screwdriver over metal grill mesh. You do get all the power you probably need for normal driving. The DSG really helps to keep you in the optimum gear and you can effortlessly save fuel due to the way it works, switching the engine off or cutting a cylinder depending on driving conditions and what you're doing. It's perfect for anyone who isn't interested in cars/driving and just wants a fridge to get them from A to B.

[heisthegaffer]

LukeSi said:

Sheepshanks said:

Yazza54 said:

LukeSi said:

Couple of people I know report sub 30 mpg if the battery runs out. Just to throw that in there. That's doing 70 on the motorway so I imagine even worse around town.

Ouch

From other stuff I've seen (and the poster above) that doesn't seem right at all - maybe they're driving them in the wrong mode or something.

BIL had a Lexus RX450h and he was told he'd get similar overall MPG to his BMW diesel. So he's a bit dismayed that on long motorway runs it's doing high 20's MPG. But it's biggish SUV with a 3.5 litre V6 petrol - and he drives at 85 where possible. Sub 30 in a Golf at 70 would be truely terrible.

What they've told me is with the hybrid battery fully charged they're doing 60-70mpg, as soon as it runs out its sub 30.
Both Cupra's, one a Formentor the other a Leon.

I did over 200 miles last Tues in my formentor leaving the house fully charged, driving in hybrid mode. It did well into 50s mpg. A fair bit was between 60 and 70 mph as the M1 was very busy.

We all have different driving styles but I'm surprised with those results.