Peugeot have updated their E-308 & most importantly extended its driving range. The good news is that it still drives nicely & slight exterior tweaks help it look good as well.
Tell me more
Peugeot have updated & improved their electric powertrain so the latest E-308 now comes with a usable 55.4kWh battery & 155 kW electric motor offering a maximum range of 281 miles WLTP. A heat pump is standard for greater efficiency & with an onboard three-phase 11kW charger, even charging up to full at home from empty, will only take 7 hours & 30 minutes.
Model range & spec
The E- 308 is available in a choice of 5 trim levels; Style, Active, Allure, GT & GT Premium, with the latter three only offered in the EV.
Allure Electric costs from £30,995 & comes with a tinted rear tailgate, 17″ ‘Halong’ diamond cut alloys, PEUGEOT Smartbeam – high beam assist, PEUGEOT i-Connect® & 3D Navigation, PEUGEOT customisable i-Toggles®, a 180° Reversing camera & an air quality system (AQS)
GT goes further with 18″ ‘Kamakura’ diamond-cut alloy, full matrix LED headlights with 3D LED taillights, gloss black roof rails, 8 internal colour ambient lighting, a configurable 10″ 3D instrument panel & Wireless Mirror Screen® technology.
Select GT Premium from just under £36,000 & you’ll gain a heat pump, an Alcantara interior, 360 degree vision & drive assist & a 3D customisable 10” driver display.
Exterior
E-308 comes with the Peugeot emblem in the centre of the front grille, with new smaller & hidden front corner lights courtesy of an updated front end. Peugeots familiar fang-shaped daytime running lights & headlights. At the back, Peugeot’s rear three-claw light signature remains & ‘an E’ badge signifies the all-electric version of the E-308.
Inside & controls
The latest Peugeot interior is just as nice as what came before, so you get a solid dash top, decent chrome & black plastics used elsewhere, tough looking seat fabric & some nice detail on the air-vents & front facia.
The Peugeot i-Cockpit comes with the E-308 & on our test car, a fully customisable digital instrument panel, a 10″ central touchscreen with i-ConnectAdvanced infotainment & customisable i-Toggle, Bluetooth, DAB, wireless smart phone charging, wireless Apple CarPlay & Android Auto & a 6-speaker radio. GT also comes with connected 3D navigation that includes TomTom® Live updates & SpeedCam alerts
Underneath the touchscreen, sit touch sensitive pads designed to shortcut the menus. These can be reconfigured to feature your favourite menus. They work well, but when you reach for the touchscreen itself, you’ll find on occasion that your wrist unintentionally rests on one of these & takes you to a menu you didn’t want.
The small ‘Marmite’ i-Cockpit steering wheel is still there – we love it ! – & it can obscure the cars dials, but on the plus side, it does give the E-308 a more sporty feel.
Safety
Our GT test car offers a myriad of safety features, including Intelligent Speed Adaption, cruise control with speed limiter, the Drive Assist Pack including Rear cross traffic alert, Adaptive cruise control with Stop & Go function, long range Blind Spot Detection, Lane Keeping Assist, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, speed limit recognition, Active Safety Brake with night function & driver attention warning.
Practicality
The cabin features 34 litres of storage, including two smartphone slots, twin centre cupholders, a smallish glove box, slim door pockets, a split armrest with storage beneath, two front & two rear C USB’s, a 12v socket, a rear fold-down armrest with cupholders & a phone rest inside.
Front seat passengers have room to stretch out, but rear passenger space isn’t brilliant especially for three. The E-308 is very much a C-Sector car & will happily seat 4 adults, but a fifth would be a push. If you’re sat in the back, leg & headroom are okay, but if there’s a tall driver in front of you, whoever’s sat behind will be struggling for leg space.
The boot
The electric 308 offers 361 litres of boot space & it’s both a good width & depth with a low load lip for loading. Fold down the rear seats & this increases to 1274 litres. There’s also a 12v socket & boot light in the boot, quick release seat levers & a couple of side storage areas protected by cargo nets.
Charging, electric functions & range
The E-308 comes with familiar Stellantis controls for the driving modes, Eco, Normal or Sport, whilst “Brake” mode allows drivers to gain more miles when the accelerator pedal is released to optimise energy recovery. And finally there’s a 3-level regenerative braking sett-up which you can adjust via te steering wheel paddles, to help you eke out a few extra miles.
There’s a dedicated screen within the infotainment system for drivers to monitor all aspects of the electric powertrain. This screen displays information including energy flow from the battery to the electric motor, as well as the energy recovery when the regenerative braking mode is activated. Drivers can also see information and statistics relating to energy consumption, as well as check the battery status & program a delayed charge.
If like us you have a home 7.4kWh charger, we use a Rolec, http://rolecserv.com/ev-charging, you can charge your electric 308 from 20% to 80% in just 4 hours & 30 minutes, so almost all of your home charging can be done when the four hour cheap overnight rates are available. Excellent ! Away from home, you can fully charge your SW in 6 hours from a 22kW accelerated public charger. Using a 100kW rapid charger, a 20-80% charge takes just 32 minutes.
Drivers also benefit from the MyPEUGEOT application, which includes the ability to view the battery charge status, start charging remotely, schedule a charging session & program the pre-conditioning system.
Performance, CO2 & economy
Top speed is 106mph & 0-62mph takes 9.3 seconds. With 156hp & 270Nm’s, it feels much quicker. CO2 is of course 0% with the WLTP combined range of 281 miles from the cars 55.4kWh battery. We’d surmise a comfortable 200 miles in the harshest Winter weather is the worst case scenario & if driven more slowly in urban environs, we reckon that 300 miles is achievable in warmer weather by utilising the cars on board brake regeneration. And our week proved that the 254 mile range at 70mph is doable in warmish July weather.
Driving
Alongside the E-308 SW, piloting the electric 308 is pretty much the most fun we’ve had in a Stellantis EV. Harking back to my days 30 years ago with a ‘D’ reg 205 GTI, the E-308 drives superbly, belying the fact that it weighs in at 1675kg. The extra battery weight seems to add to the cars fun with it hugging the road like glue. On an undulating route around the Wirral it didn’t skip a beat.
Being sensible as it’s an EV, we drove mainly in Eco mode, so this dampens the power somewhat. Normal drive mode releases a bit more energy whilst Sport mode offers by far the most fun when you put your foot down, but of course your economy falls. To be fair even in Eco mode with the highest regeneration function on, it’s pretty impressive.
Motorway driving
On the motorway, adaptive cruise control is a god-send & the E-308 happily keeps up with traffic whilst offering decent acceleration as required. Noise inside the cabin is kept to a minimum & we connected our iPhone wirelessly to Apple CarPlay which worked well. It’s a brilliant motorway companion & at a constant 70mph, the battery range fell at almost exactly a 1:1 ratio, impressive !
Infotainment
We’re now used to the Peugeot infotainment system, with the entire Peugeot range featuring Voice Control, which allows you to set up many of the cars functions, such as climate control, to be adjusted by your voice. For example, phrases such as,”Call Andrew Walker”, “I’m too hot”, “Navigate Home”, will all elicit a response.
For owners getting to grips with their new Peugeot, by simply pressing the microphone switch on the steering wheel, you’ll gain access to plenty of useful short cuts, which is far simpler than attempting to memorise every screen menu & is really well worth knowing about.
The good
A cheaper electric 308 is good news full stop & one that handle this well is even better. Now we have mastered the infotainment in the Peugeot, it really is quite good. A 280 + mile electric range is a big improvement for on the brands previous sub 250 mile battery performance. The on board 11kWh charger means faster & cheaper charging at home overnight. BIK is just 3%.
The bad
Rear cabin space isn’t as good as you get in an E-3008. Range is better but still lags behind some competitors.
Verdict
Peugeot’s E-308 fills a nice gap in the brands E-Lion range & for us, alongside the E-308 SW, is the best driving electric Peugeot & one of the best electric cars we’ve tried as well. The improvements inside & out to the Peugeot range in recent months only enhance the e-308’s premium feel, especially in GT trim. If you want everything, it’s also packed with a host of tech & safety features to satisfy the most demanding customer. The 3% BIK means it’s a company car winner.
