AND BREF
Electric city car
V2 de la e-208
More autonomy
From €33,000
Appearing in 2019, the second generation of Peugeot 208 very quickly established itself as the best seller in the city car category and, even better, it even became the best-selling model in France over the first eight months of the year. It is ahead of old acquaintances, namely the Renault Clio and the Dacia Sandero. Then come the Peugeot 2008 and Renault Captur to close the Top 5.
Success is there and the future therefore looks bright for this 208, especially since this craze affects all versions, even the electric one. Thus, the e-208 is the most sold electric vehicle in France, ahead of the Fiat 500 and the Dacia Spring. All signals are therefore green. However, Peugeot is not standing still and has made some alterations to its city car. Please note that these are not aesthetic, but purely mechanical.
The 208 is not lacking in personality, as evidenced by the vertical daytime running lights or the large grille that can take on the color of the body.
This 208 retains its very own style, which hit the mark with customers with its wide grille that can take on the color of the bodywork and its vertical daytime running lights that surround the front end, giving it a strong personality. And unlike other manufacturers, Peugeot preferred not to differentiate the engines: electric and internal combustion engines have exactly the same look except for certain details such as the logos on the rear pillar, the trunk and the absence of an outlet. ‘exhaust.
The presentation of the 208 is still just as out of step with other productions on the market.
Inside, when it was released, the 208 caused a sensation with its interior and its i-cockpit consisting of a small steering wheel, a multimedia screen slightly oriented towards the driver and high digital instrumentation. It is not present on all finishes. Our test model in the “Allure” finish was not equipped with it, but the readability remains good. It should be noted, however, that the driving position does not achieve consensus among all templates.
The trunk and rear roominess are not the strong points of this e-208 compared to the competition.
The practical aspects are in the low average of the category since two adults can take place on board. The cargo volume is limited with only 265 liters.
The e-208 is powered by an engine delivering 109 to 136 hp depending on the driving mode chosen and equipped with a torque of up to 260 Nm. It is powered by lithium ion batteries with a total capacity of 50 kWh. At the start of its career, the announced autonomy was 340 km according to the WLTP standard. As for the charging time, Peugeot announces 16 hours at 3.7 kW and 7 hours 30 minutes with the 7.4 kW single-phase delivered by the most common Wallboxes. The 208 is capable of accepting fast charges of up to 100 kW with 30 minutes to recover 0 to 80% of the autonomy. Finally, regarding performance, the e-208 was given for 8.1 s for a 0 to 100 km / h.
The changes are mainly technical.
It is precisely at the level of some of these criteria that Peugeot has worked. Thus, the manufacturer has worked on the gear ratio of the reducer by lengthening it in order to reduce consumption. A hygrometry sensor has been installed in order to control heating and air conditioning more efficiently. Finally, more efficient tires have been chosen. Concretely, thanks to these changes, the overall autonomy gains 22 km from 340 to 362 km in normal use. In winter, the difference is even greater since it can reach 40 km. Only positive points except that the modifications made also have repercussions on the tonicity of this e-208 which loses 0.8s on the exercise from 0 to 100 km/h. Nothing very serious in itself since the French shoots it all the same in less than 9s. We remain on more than satisfactory times for a city car for which performance is not the first purchase criterion. Especially since it is almost imperceptible to the driver. It must be said that this e-208 is still just as pleasant to drive. It is also one of the nicest electric cars to drive on the market with behavior almost identical to that of a thermal with precise and informative steering, a well-maintained body even when the pace increases while maintaining a good comfort. The only complaint concerns the feeling of the brake pedal which is not very natural.
Even if it is the sport mode which allows you to benefit from the maximum power of 136 hp and 260 Nm, it is with the “normal” which offers 100 hp, that we carried out our test. Largely sufficient for daily use and it is precisely under these conditions that we were able to realize that the improvements made had real consequences on autonomy. Thus, we recorded an average of 14 kWh/100 km. An excellent score knowing that we did not try to do eco-driving with, for example, air conditioning still in operation. Enough to travel around 357 km, very close to the official autonomy. Status quo with regard to the recharging capacities or the regeneration since this e-208 is always equipped with a reinforced braking system.
