THE beautiful Peugeot 208 is here to inject a little bit of pleasure and youthfulness in the small hatch segment.
The last generation car was a good car, but it wasn’t necessarily exciting.
The new Polo rival is a whole lot exciting to look at and Peugeot is promising that it will be fun to drive too.
Like other cars in the range, the new 208 is looking to move more up market.
It brings features like 3D head-up displays, Peugeot’s i-Cockpit and a number of driving aids usually preserved for cars higher up the class.
The new car is wider, longer and lower than the outgoing model. It gets Peugeot’s new signature Full LED 3-claw headlight design.
The rear also gets the new black band running over the width of the boot lid just like in the 3008.
The new car will be available with petrol, diesel and electric powertrains from the onset.
One 1.2-litre petrol engine will be available with three power outputs 56, 75 and 97kW, there’s also the diesel 75kW 1.5-litre diesel.
Two transmission options will be available for the 75kW petrol option, a 5-speed manual and an 8-speed automatic. The least powerful option only gets the manual transmission and the most powerful is only available with the auto.
Then there’s the e-208, it features a 100kW electric motor which is powered by a 50kWh battery, good for a claimed 340 km range.
The battery can be charged up to 80% on a dedicated public charging terminal, 16 hours on a conventional wall socket and about 5 hours with a wall box.
The 208 is still on the local Peugeot website, so we expect to see this French beauty on our shores next year when it launches. But with our Eishkom problems, we expect only the petrol and diesel to make it.
