Pearl blue is enchanting and long ice tusks on the bow shine into the night. Inside, for the first time ever, is a three-dimensional instrument panel and a flashlight on the chassis, which drives this whole electric world. The Peugeot e-208 is beautiful and functional, it goes hand in hand with everyone who is just starting out with electric cars. However, it is not completely suitable for longer trips.
Peugeot took its electric tow on time. It didn’t really start it until last year, and this year the electric variants of the e-208 and e-2008 models, as well as the hybrid version of the 3008 crossover with the manager’s 508, also reached the Czech Republic.
It is the smallest model of the above that pays for the most interesting, as it represents the ideal teaching aid for driver education for the 21st century – it runs not only on electricity, but also on diesel and gasoline. And it boasts the title of European Car of the Year. Even the greatest skeptics of cars without exhausts can easily compare the extent to which coexistence with the fossil model is different from the electric one in a successful car.
This clever Peugeot marketing move was made possible by the modular CMP platform. Last spring, the PSA Group showed it along with the new DS 3 Crossback. It has many advantages, both economic and practical, which will also be appreciated by the drivers themselves. This one, for example: the stopping of the electric motor and especially the batteries of the new 208 series has been taken into account since the beginning of development, and therefore the cells do not take up space in the trunk. You can load 309 liters of luggage into both the fossil and electric versions.
So it’s not much, even though Peugeot outperforms the Fiesta with a suitcase, it loses in volume with a tiny Pole, for example. There is also no place to give out inside the car, especially in the back seats. Although the Peugeot 208 is completely five-door, fuller bodies do not extend through subtle doors. Maximum travel comfort will be enjoyed mainly by the driver and co-driver, the remaining passengers – if they are not children in car seats – only if they are smaller figures.
Moving borders
If the Peugeot e-208 allows the uninitiated to smell the electromobility, which is currently moving the automotive world with much power, it is just as good at rope for lovers of modern technology. The most distinctive hi-tech feature is certainly the digital instrument panel with a 3D effect.
It’s basically a pair of displays that’s so cleverly built into the chapel behind the wheel that the result puts together a primitive but great-looking projection. Anyone who knows similar visual games only from sci-fi series will be absolutely blown away. The system works like other digital alarm clocks, but shows some of the information to the driver in the foreground so that he has a good “handy” at first. However, it is still an innovation in test operation, so not every animation is smooth.
As another magic in the series, which the French i-Cockpit offers countless, but the 3D display impresses. This is further proof that Peugeot is not afraid to push the boundaries. Especially if you’re lucky enough to adjust your seat so that you can really see the display behind the wheel. Especially taller characters can make it a bit of a problem. But smaller ones will be satisfied.
What about ambition?
The more drivers get into the outlet with each new generation of cars, the development of battery technology is moving forward and it is no longer an exception to drive for 300, 400 or more kilometers on a single charge, the more complicated electric cars like the Peugeot e-208. A lot of cars are also entering the market, whose manufacturers openly admit that their commuting ambitions end with the city limits.
Although Peugeot presents the e-208 as a small city electric car, it does not belong to the category of purely street minis, in which a tiny electric Smart or a technologically picturesque Honda with enchanting camera projections on the door instead of rear-view mirrors is needed. He was left hanging somewhere in half – if you didn’t drive him on the highway for a hundred and thirty, you would drive to Brno. And there you will immediately head for the charger.
All this must be taken into account, and all this is still a very limiting factor in similar types of electric cars. And even in the case of shorter trips, such as the one from Prague to Křivoklátsko. Before entering the deep forests, you will reach the highway over a consumption of 20 kWh per 100 kilometers. Because the usable capacity of the battery is 45 kWh, simple math sounds relentless.
In the districts, the appetite is milder, in the villages you will reduce consumption by seven, eight kilowatt hours lower. If you enjoy the autumn landscape for a long time, you will prefer to stop in Beroun to recharge your car on the way back. About 16 kWh will be completed by a classic fast charger in 20 minutes. It is not an insurmountable complication, but it must be remembered.
Newcomers will appreciate it
It is really only possible to squeeze 340 kilometers of paper from a flashlight (according to WLTP) under 100% optimal conditions. You will then charge the fully juiced car via the on-board three-phase charger (11 kW) in the best case around five hours. The super-fast DC charger (100 kW) can charge the car to 80 percent of capacity in half an hour.
If you cruise the city with the e-208, you will have no problem recharging it continuously. In addition, it is in the alleys and at traffic lights that you will appreciate its quietness and agility the most. Peugeot doesn’t have as fast starts as the i3, but it also weighs a ton and a half, but it certainly doesn’t drag. Electricians-beginners will appreciate it. As well as a very mild recuperation setting, which can only be enhanced by selecting the stick in position B. There are no paddles under the steering wheel, no other more sophisticated mechanism that would be welcomed by advanced “flashlights” and annoyed newcomers.
Playing with a car is not forbidden, there is still a sports mode, which can use the maximum torque of 260 Nm without delay, especially with an electric car. If you do not accelerate in a similar way, for example on the highway, you will not even notice that the surrounding rumble easily penetrates into the cabin at higher speeds. Holt, where the engine does not roar, the ears catch the slightest noise. A quiet walking ride suits the e-208 the most, when the car is unsteering, comfortable, and when it is just 20 degrees outside and clear, it is reasonably voracious.
This can be a great advantage for a wallet, especially if we include the initial investment in the price calculations. The cheapest e-208 will give you at least 810 thousand in action. If you would like adaptive cruise control, automatic high beams or better Alcantara seats and a larger 10-inch capacitive display, you still have to pay 100,000 extra. The high prices of the new models pay for the biggest pain of electric cars in general, and the e-208 price tag is not even among the highest. In any case, everyone is equal at the cash register – whether you start with electric cars or not, you have to save a lot to buy some.
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