Peugeot e-2008 | Review

Up until recently if you wanted an electric car but couldn’t afford a Tesla your options were limited to a variety of small SUVs. Times are changing and now if you want an electric family car you can have anything from a Volkswagen ID3, a Hyundai Kona, a Kia e-Nero, an MG EV and this, the Peugeot e-2008.

Special mention : Stands out in Orange Fusion, decent & accurate range. Textures are tough and ensures they’re easy to clean. Space is very good. Versatile and brilliant for making congested traffic a breeze.

Needs work : Range is 300 km and we’d like to see an increase in the next generation. Few more quality touch materials for the cabin. Extra menus with more real time information on the vehicle.

BHP 136 HPElectric / Auto
0-100 km/h in 8.5 secondsRoad Tax €120
Price: €34,635Boot space 434 / 1,467 litres
Range 310 km

Unfortunately the Irish government’s have changed the PHEV grants but you can still get the SEAI grant and VRT Relief for full EV’s. This e-2008 has a range of up to 310 km from the 50 kilowatt-hour battery. As with all electric Peugeot’s the 2008 looks just the same as the petrol or diesel alternative.  There’s a couple of differences between ICE and EV cars, you’ve got a blue /  green tinge on the badge, there’s a different coloured grille and of course the badging on the boot. The 2008 might look a bit suv like but is front wheel drive only, so don’t go thinking that it has got any off-road potential. 

This is the Allure version and it’s one of the most popular trims because you get those cool fanged LED headlights and a few other comforts. As with just about every other electric car, the e-2008 can pre-warm or cool the cabin. You input what time you’re heading off in the morning and as long as the car is plugged in, it’ll get the cabin to your chosen temperature using mains electricity. It’s truly brilliant for saving time on icy mornings. There are three drive modes too: Eco, Normal and Sport. Even Eco is fine in terms of performance and throttle response but unfortunately it turns off the car’s heater.  Even if you’ve got the pre-warmed cabin on a chilly day, it gets cold quite quickly. 

Regarding practicality, the good news is that this is a really good little family car.  The boot is 434 litres so it’s a good size and you get a variable height boot floor on all but the base trim which is perfect for hiding all the cables.

There’s a decent amount of room in the back for a couple of adults or two chunky car seats and you’ve got decent access and head room.  When sitting a child into the seats you may have to bend in and wrestle around with your kids and the seat belts a bit. And it’s a shame that there’s no rear center armrest. 

Unfortunately there’s no fancy sliding seats or any additional versatility that you get in alternatives like the Renault Captur for instance but for some context you do get better access and a bit more leg and headroom in the 2008 than you do in a conventional family hatchback like a Volkswagen Golf. 

Get comfortable in the driving seat and once you get used to Peugeot’s steering wheel layout, which is different because the dials are above it which might make you place the wheel lower than you might usually have it, you will find everything at your fingertips. Once you get comfortable up front, you notice the materials are good and the layout is modern and minimalist. 

The touch sensitive buttons don’t always respond and the touchscreen although the widescreen version in this trim looks great, you do have to leave the screen you’re on to change the temperature. You may have to do all sorts of weird and wonderful things to find easy settings like changing the brightness on the screen, so it could be a bit more logical to use. The cars nav will show you where the nearest charging stations are which is most helpful on out of town journeys. 

The e-2008 has a very good charging speed plug, using a CCS rapid charger of 100 kilowatts or more you will get up to 80 percent in 30 minutes. Plug it in at home to a seven kilowatt home charger and it’ll be fully charged in around nine hours. The e-2008 only gets a 134 HP electric motor but it’s still got plenty of acceleration. It doesn’t feel drastically fast but it definitely feels responsive enough even for a mid-range burst for overtaking. 

Especially around town it feels quite nippy so you can jump out into faster traffic lanes and it feels more than comfortable even in eco mode. It’s just a very sort of slick, easy car to drive.

The steering is a bit faster than on most alternative family crossovers partly because of the little steering wheel, it’s got quite an eager entry into a corner and that’s good. You might need to get used to the steering feeling and the ride could be a little smoother at low speeds around cities with scruffy roads, it’s not crashy or uncomfortable though, it’s more of a refined car. It feels stable and perfectly good on the motorway too.  You would definitely be more than happy doing a long commute in the e-2008 provided you can cover it with the range on offer. The brake regen is barely noticeable, when you lift off the throttle it bleeds in the brakes so that it’s harvesting energy even when you’re just losing speed or on the brakes. In the 2008 it’s so mild it genuinely just feels like normal engine braking in a petrol or diesel car. If you’ve never driven an EV before, this will feel very familiar to you, you don’t really need to think about it.

If you do want to up the brake regen, you can nudge the gear lever and you get ‘B’ mode which makes it quite a bit heavier but it’s still smooth and predictable which you get used to. 

Either as a school run car or as a daily commuter, I think the 2008 is just a very easy going car and a really pleasant vehicle to spend time in. If you do have a long distance commute that you’re considering covering in the 2008 then you should know that the official range is some way off what you’ll get in the real world. In a worst case scenario you could expect some 200 km of range if it’s a cold day and you’re on the motorway for the whole journey. However, in more varied driving and in warmer conditions you will see more like 260 to 280 km fairly easily.

The e-2008 is a very fine family car and a very decent electric car as well then but it just feels like it doesn’t have much of a unique selling point it’s not the longest range car in the class that would be the Kia e-Nero.  The Hyundai is left for dead when it comes to styling. The e-2008 is very good and if you can find one for a decent price and it suits your needs then go for it because it’s a very well-rounded car.