[Auto] Peugeot is asking £20,400 for its hypercar-inspired* 208 facelift

[El Máster Edwin]

*By which we mean ‘the lights are similar’. Meanwhile the e-208 is now a £32k car…

 

Prices for the updated Peugeot 208 and electric e-208 supermini have been announced in tandem with order books opening: a smidge over £20k gets you into a car styled to look ever so slightly like the 9X8 hypercar.

The links to the Le Mans racer are tenuous bordering on laughable, of course. But if OEMs stopped believing that kind of marketing was worthwhile they’d cease racing tomorrow, so let’s all just play along with it.

There are six powertrains to choose from: two petrol, two hybrid and two electric. The entry-level 208 gets the 1.2-litre PureTech engine in 74bhp (with a five-speed manual) and 99bhp (plus six-speed manual) as before, so no change there.

Then for the first time on the 208 there are two hybrid options, each mated to a six-speed auto but producing either 99bhp or 134bhp. Peugeot claims more torque at lower revs and 15 per cent better (than what?) fuel economy, as well as up to 50/50 ICE/EV running on slower urban roads.

 

Finally there’s a pair of e-208s, either in 134bhp form and coupled with a 50kWh battery for 225 miles of range, or with a 154bhp motor and 51kWh (yup, a whole one kilowatt-hour extra) for 248 miles between charges.

The e-208 will take up to 7kW AC as standard or 11kW optionally (get the latter if your home charging point is suitably fast). A 20-80 per cent top-up takes less than half an hour at 100kW DC.

Meanwhile there are four trim levels: Active, Allure, GT and - for a short time only - E-Style, which is your only route into the lesser-powered e-208 for now. That costs £32,400, by the way.

 

 

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