Under load from cold - Hybrid question

[M.F.D]

Often when driving my wife's Cupra Leon hybrid (ICE engine is a 1.4 turbo 4 pot) the engine will burst into life if the battery range is low or dependant on throttle application. I notice this mostly when joining a motorway under sustained acceleration for example.

With a normal ICE car, it starts up and you can drive it with mechanical sympathy until oil is all circulated and where it needs to be. However often I find with the hybrid it gets 'woken up' and immediately under significant load from cold. Long term this surely can't be good for the turbo/internals?

Not that it really matters to me as it's a new car that I will never own out of warranty but curious nonetheless.

[Baldchap]

I've often thought the same. But I guess modern lubricants and manufacturing mitigate much of the issues. Plus, how many cars are retired due to engines being knackered?

Tons of 300,000+ mile Prius taxis about.

[raspy]

M.F.D said:

Often when driving my wife's Cupra Leon hybrid (ICE engine is a 1.4 turbo 4 pot) the engine will burst into life if the battery range is low or dependant on throttle application. I notice this mostly when joining a motorway under sustained acceleration for example.

With a normal ICE car, it starts up and you can drive it with mechanical sympathy until oil is all circulated and where it needs to be. However often I find with the hybrid it gets 'woken up' and immediately under significant load from cold. Long term this surely can't be good for the turbo/internals?

Not that it really matters to me as it's a new car that I will never own out of warranty but curious nonetheless.

Those days of needing to the engine warm up first for a few miles are long gone. No issue with hybrid cars and the ICE engine waking up suddenly from significant load under cold. They are designed to cope with those circumstances without prematurely wearing the engine out.

See this reddit post where someone driving an i8 asks the same question as you, the answers are useful to read.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/e6zfly/do_h...

[joropug]

A friend with an a3 PHEV also pointed out that the engine is doing a lot less miles and under less load as well (vs an ICE car doing the same mileage)

[jamesbilluk]

On mine, when you give it more load in hybrid mode and the mgine kicks in, it uses the motors, it seems to hold the engine at 1200 rpm for a while to get the oil warmed up. Sometimes I've looked at the guages, and the fluids seem to warm up even when it's driving in EV mode.