Peugeot E-3008
Theola Dolgas
Here's the replacement for the car that turned Peugeot around, the 3008. The outgoing one was good-looking, had a beautifully furnished cabin and was good to drive. Spoiler: so is the new one. But with one dramatic if not unexpected change.
That choice of propulsion stacks it up against a whole bunch of rivals. For the electric, think Tesla Model Y, Volvo EX40, VW ID.4 or ID.5, Renault Scenic, Hyundai Kona Electric or Ioniq 5, Kia Niro EV or EV6, Nissan Ariya, Toyota bZ4X, Ford Mustang Mach-E and BMW iX1. It comes in two battery sizes, with either a single motor at the front, or twin at front and rear.
The headlines are impressive. We tested the one with a 73kWh battery, for a range (with FWD or AWD) of 326 miles WLTP. And that's the smaller of the two options, because eventually the top one will be a humongous 98kWh slab, for 422 miles WLTP. So the range comes not just from big batteries, but running efficiency too.
Frankly, the smaller pack is as much as any family needs: the kids will be busting for a wee stop long before it needs a charge. But road-warrior fleet buyers will be reassured by the bigger one. They're in too much of a hurry to risk a stop on the way to present their .ppt to the regional directors' conference at the national headquarters.
The EV version is end-to-end new. Body, platform, suspension, interior and screen system, battery. Les neuf metres entires. But Peugeot reckons a strong brand needs to be consistent, so its styling is recognisably a descendant of the old one. Most striking difference is the fastback tail, to cut drag and improve electric efficiency.
The platform will underpin a hugely important posse of cars under the ginormous Stellantis umbrella: the next Vauxhall Grandland is coming very soon, and you don't have to be Hercule Poirot to deduce a Peugeot seven-seat 5008 too and later a 508. But the range is extremely broad, from a sporty Alfa Giulia replacement via DS and Lancia to the chunky and hardish-core off-road Jeep Recon. Plus, for those in Americaland, the Chrysler Airflow.
Good spot. We usually say that purpose-designed EVs are less compromised than adapted combustion ones. So we asked the engineering chief on this car how they'd done it and he was blunt: "It's three different platforms [EV, ICE and PHEV] with one car on top."
Peugeot hasn't allowed the dimensions to balloon, so it's the same size outside as the old one. Unfortunately that means there isn't extra legroom to compensate for the fact the underfloor battery steals foot space from the people behind. So the rear doesn't feel as roomy as in the rivals. Lanky teenagers won't thank their parents. But the boot's a good size. For more details click the Interior tab.
It's fluid and accurate to drive, generally very unflustered and reassuringly solid. Not terribly inspiring though, as you're always aware of its weight: we want a car that feels more connected to the road. The steering lacks feedback because it has to be strongly assisted, and the e-3008 pitches into a tight corner slightly reluctantly, and floats a bit after a sudden lump in the road. Acceleration is on the leisurely end of the EV spectrum.
In one sense he's got a point. Aerodynamics at speed is what really affects EV range and efficiency, not weight. The 3008 has low overall drag for a car of its kind and it does turn out to be reasonably efficient.
For an all-new start, the e-3008 doesn't feel like a revolution. For many, that'll be a win. Design and cabin are evolved and improved. There's none of the shock-value of VW's MEB cars, which polarised people with their switch to RWD, pared-back cabins and stupidly tricky interface.
The e-3008 isn't a clean sweep, though. Some families will want more rear space, and we regret its heavy-footedness. Peugeot has made a play for range by offering big batteries linked to high-efficiency motors and electronics. There's bi-directional charging too.
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The STLA Medium architecture (there are also Small, Large and Frame ones in the works for other sizes of car, but Medium comes first) has been designed for electric cars first and foremost and then adapted to house internal combustion engine and plug-in hybrid powertrains rather than the other way around. But the differences are such that it could almost be considered a native architecture for electric cars.
The Peugeot 3008 (without the e) is also available as a mild-hybrid petrol, with plug-in hybrids to follow later in the year. The car is now in its third model generation and in each generation it has taken on a different form. It started as an MPV, became a crossover and is now, according to Peugeot, a fastback SUV.
The Panoramic i-Cockpit has a 21in display that seamlessly blends two screens: one for the driver, and a more central touchscreen for infotainment. The way it seems to hover over the dashboard gives it a bit more elegance than the standard 'iPad on the dash'.
We like the addition of the so-called 'i-Toggle' screen lower on the fascia. It's effectively a display for 10 large icons that work as configurable shortcuts. They partially make up for the lack of physical buttons, as you can set them to engage the heated seats, navigation etc, if you like; or to take you straight to the car's ADAS system overrides. It's slightly unfortunate that you can't program them to put the temperature up and down.
Peugeot says the voice control operation is also clever enough to tell which side of the car the commands are coming from; so from their airy throne, the front passenger will also be able to adjust the likes of their side of the climate control through voice alone.
Up front, the e-3008 is an easy car to get comfortable in, and the seats are great; a good driving position is easy to find. Rear passengers get decent head and leg room, although not as much as in rivals like the Renault Scenic, Skoda Enyaq, Tesla Model Y or Hyundai Ioniq 5.
The multimedia system in the e-3008 is a development of the one in most other Stellantis cars. That means the home screen is widely configurable with various tiles. It takes a bit of setting up when you first get the car but ultimately works quite well. The screen did get quite warm on our test drive, and was slightly laggy at times and prone to freezing.
One significant new feature is a route planning function in the on-board navigation. When you set a destination that is further away than the car's current predicted range, it will plot a route via various rapid chargers. It supposedly knows when chargers are occupied and can re-route you. You can specify how much charge you want to reserve at your destination as well. It seemed to be quite clever in its selection of rapid chargers, but we'll need to do a long journey in the UK to test how well it works in practice and whether it can begin to get near to the route planner that has been in Teslas for years.
At around the beginning of 2025, the e-3008 range will grow to include a Long Range single-motor version with a slightly more powerful 227bhp motor and that 98kWh battery pack for the 435-mile range; and also a dual-motor version of the 73kWh battery, with four-wheel drive and a combined 316bhp.
We did get a brief go on a circuit in an early dual-motor version, which revealed itself to be much like the standard car, just with better acceleration and a more instant response to the inputs of your right foot. But that's perhaps unsurprising, given there are next to no meaningful changes to the car other than an extra 60kg of weight and some software revisions.
Ride comfort and body control are the main reasons why. The car's weight reveals itself in a primary ride that heaves and rolls a bit over country roads, and a secondary one that can clunk and shudder over sharper intrusions. The ride really can feel busy, even on ultra-smooth French autoroutes. Bumpier surfaces introduce head toss, and at low speeds the ride can feel quite wooden. Meanwhile, bigger throttle applications can tee up noticable torque steer through that small, over-assisted wheel, especially over cambered roads.
However, turning it off takes a few too many taps, while the posted limit detection system is prone to picking up incorrect speed limits, or seemingly wrongly 'translating' miles-per-hour limits as if they had been posted in kilometres-an-hour.
The e-3008 is priced towards the higher end of the class. Prices start at 45,850 for an Allure model, and the leap to a GT is 3800. Only these two trims and the one powertrain/battery (211bhp/73kWh) combination will be available for the best part of a year.
Allure is generally fairly well equipped, with the big screen and a panoramic sunroof coming as standard. However, it feels rather mean, especially in an EV, that you have to upgrade to GT to get heated seats.
On our test drive, which did include some spirited driving on mountain roads, the car indicated an efficiency figure of 3.1mpkWh, which was slightly disappointing given the mild conditions; but on UK roads, our average was a more heartening 3.7 mpkWh. That would translate into a real-world range of 270 miles: a shade more than you might expect from a VW ID 4 or Hyundai Ioniq 5, but slightly less than a long-range Tesla Model Y or Polestar 2 would provide.
Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.
Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?, Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.
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