Peugeot e-2008 review: an EV only as good as its rivals
Peugeot E 2008
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Peugeot 2008 E |
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Class="contextmenu rating |
★★★☆☆ |
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price Class="contextmenu |
As From €35,610 Tested €40,230 |
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Motor |
Which 54kwh A 154bhp Translates Into |
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Emphasis">range Class="contextmenu |
406km Actual With A 340km An Claimed Of Around |
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Spec Class="contextmenu the |
Gt Very In Nearly Spectacular Specification |
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Emphasis">verdict For several years now, I’ve been expecting a deluge of top product from Peugeot, but the anticipated tsunami is keeping me in a sense of expectancy, because it has not quite arrived yet and this week’s tester only served as a taster for what’s expected down the line. The last time we drove the car in question, the Peugeot 2008, back in 2020 we felt that amid all the excellence of product coming from the French marque (208, 308, 3008, 5008, 408 and 508) the car was possibly the least good of the lot of them and this was a disappointment. Now the 2008 was a huge seller for the brand and the company’s smallest SUV was ridiculously popular all across Europe and Asia (particularly in China) too. It was just that we here at Examiner Motoring felt it was not as good as some of the other excellent product coming from the brand. It was good, but not as good as it might have been. Now, four years on, Peugeot has revamped the 2008 and in doing so also upgraded the electric e-2008 we first saw in 2019 and it is this EV model which we concentrate on this week. Sad to say, though, it too suffers by comparison with its Peugeot stablemates. But let’s look at what Peugeot has done to upgrade the car and we’ll start with its EV-ness. The older car had a claimed range of 320 km which was a bit short of best in class and, in the real world, even worse than that, working out on average at closer to 250 km. In order to boost that, Peugeot has given the e-2008 a bigger capacity battery – 54 kWh instead of 50 – which translates into a 154 bhp output from the electric motor. This is now more powerful than previously and also more efficient. All of that translates into a top speed of 150 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of 9.1 seconds and the range is now claimed to be 406 km which is closer to the class norm than previously and the real-world figure is now in the region of 340 km, which is also a substantial improvement. As is now the way with most such cars there are three driving mode options – Sport, Comfort or Eco. The former knocks at least 20 km off your range straight away but does give you some element of a lively feel, while the latter feels completely toothless and the middle ground choice is austere rather than spicy. That means you find yourself missing the get-up-and-go, say, of the 155 bhp petrol option that used to be offered. The ICE alternatives now come from the three-pot 1.2 PureTech of which there are 100 and 130 bhp variants, or 136 bhp if you go for the mild-hybrid option. So, the mini-GTi feel that used to be quite tempting, is no longer there. On the road the ride quality is passable and, to be fair, there’s little road or wind noise, so the 18” alloys are not as much of an issue as is the case on some cars. However, the handling is neither sharp or poised and that makes the e-2008 a thing which is not something you’ll love driving. Now, it has to be said that most of its rivals are in the same boat – there are few in this class that immediately strike you as being a classic of the genre – and that means there’s few enough of them are memorable to drive. This is really unfortunate for the Peugeot, given that so many of its siblings are well up the charts when it comes to on-road performance and driver engagement. It is equally unfortunate because almost everything else about the car screams attractiveness and plausibility. The new look of the e-2008 makes for a gorgeous beast car and one which is well capable of stealing hearts. Not that the Peugeot designers have had to work too hard in this department because the foundations they started with were so strong in the first place. As the 2008 is a best-seller across Europe and wherever else it sells, primarily because it is so good-looking, the manufacturer was never going to mess around too much. The new one will continue to sell well largely because Peugeot has not tricked about too much with a winning formula. The old ‘fang’ running lights have metamorphosed into three angled LED lights which are more ‘claw’ than ‘fang,’ while the main lights are new and on the GT version we tested these are made up of three individual pods behind the lenses. The grille is also new and very eye-catching too. The interior is pretty familiar and the excellent instrument binnacle design ahead of the driver is attractive and the digital instruments within have been tweaked for better readability and assimilation. In the centre of the dash there is a revised touchscreen which has high-definition technology. This system is utilised elsewhere across the Peugeot range and obviously works well, but the lack of air con buttons is a pain and, for many people, the tiny steering wheel – a huge component of the company’s ‘i-Cockpit’ design, - will be a paid too because it necessitates a very low siting (almost on your lap) if you want to see what the instruments are telling you. The cabin is pretty practical and the seats, being French, wonderfully comfortable, although room in the back is a touch tight and long-leggers won’t want to be in there for lengthy periods of time. The boot is compact too. Specification on the GT version tester was impressive with a lengthy list of stuff coming as standard on the GT version, including the sexy alloys. Indeed the GT spec come with some nice colour choices too and while I was initially sceptical about the Selenium Grey colour scheme on the tester (I liked the Vertigo Blue better), it really grew on me. The electric version of this car does come at a premium price, but it is not so far removed from the petrol option price as to be ludicrously overpriced, but the addition of ICE engines to the line-up at least gives people a decent option. I wanted to like this car a lot more than I actually did and was a little disappointed with it - particularly from the point of view of the driving dynamics – which came as a surprise given that Peugeot has got it so right with so many of its other offerings. The corollary is that Peugeot is not alone in making dynamically moderate cars in the small SUV segment and the conclusion therefore that this is among the best in class, despite having apparent drawbacks. In this case the sum of its parts is not good enough for a demanding driver, but makes it among the top cars in the class. Oddly, it is the e-2008’s Stellantis stablemate, the Jeep Avenger that takes the class honours. | |