[Auto] Peugeot e-3008

[MehrezVM]

 

Never has a Stella been so significant. No, not a pint of Belgium’s finest enjoyed at 6am in Luton airport to kick-start the holiday of a lifetime, but rather Stellantis’s new STLA (pronounced ‘Stella’ – geddit?) architecture.

 

It’s going to underpin two million cars per year from the diverse brands within the Stellantis stable and the first of them is the Peugeot e-3008. Given the current Peugeot 3008 has been a phenomenal success for Peugeot since its 2017 launch, selling 1.3 million units in 130 countries, the pressure is on the new car to not just keep that run of form going but also to ensure sound fundamentals for so many other models to come.

 

The e-3008 launches at a similar time to another car fitting that description, the Renault Scenic, and has a broad spread of rivals ranging from the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 to the Tesla Model Y.

 

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 STLA Medium’s chief engineer, Hervé Scheidegger, says “everything has been chosen around the battery” - and the battery has been used for lots of secondary functions, including rigidity. The architecture is designed for cars between 4.3m and 4.9m in length, and with wheelbases of 2.7-2.9m. So at just over 4.5m long and with a wheelbase of 2.7m, the e-3008 is towards the more compact end of models that will use STLA Medium. That puts it at the smaller end of the class, being shorter than the Volkswagen ID 4, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Tesla Model Y, but bigger than the Kia Niro EV.

 

Never has a Stella been so significant. No, not a pint of Belgium’s finest enjoyed at 6am in Luton airport to kick-start the holiday of a lifetime, but rather Stellantis’s new STLA (pronounced ‘Stella’ – geddit?) architecture.

 

It’s going to underpin two million cars per year from the diverse brands within the Stellantis stable and the first of them is the Peugeot e-3008. Given the current Peugeot 3008 has been a phenomenal success for Peugeot since its 2017 launch, selling 1.3 million units in 130 countries, the pressure is on the new car to not just keep that run of form going but also to ensure sound fundamentals for so many other models to come.

 

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 STLA Medium’s chief engineer, Hervé Scheidegger, says “everything has been chosen around the battery” - and the battery has been used for lots of secondary functions, including rigidity. The architecture is designed for cars between 4.3m and 4.9m in length, and with wheelbases of 2.7-2.9m. So at just over 4.5m long and with a wheelbase of 2.7m, the e-3008 is towards the more compact end of models that will use STLA Medium. That puts it at the smaller end of the class, being shorter than the Volkswagen ID 4, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Tesla Model Y, but bigger than the

Kia Niro EV.

Visually, it has way more presence than an Audi Q4 E-tron, which itself looks increasingly dated

In terms of incoming sibling models, both a seven-seat Peugeot e-5008 SUV and a fastback-style e-408 are due on sale in the UK later in 2024, using the same platform. And the advantages that platform does - and doesn’t - give the e-3008 are interesting to note.

Unlike most of its rivals, this is a primarily front-driven car - and a relatively heavy one (between 100- and 230kg heavier than key rivals). It’d likely have been a challenge to make a rear-mounted drive motor sit comfortably in a mid-sized, seven-seat car like the e-5008, if you think about it. But, because the platform itself needs to be able to support the greater weight of bigger cars, it’s probably necessarily a little over-engineered for this application - hence the kerbweight issue.

 

The car’s bulk doesn’t seem to hurt range. Buyers can choose a 73- or 98kWh drive battery, the latter delivering lab-test range of beyond 400 miles, and even the former getting well beyond 300-.

 

 

Source , Read More