Test Car Specifications
Model tested: Peugeot 3008 e-DSC6 Hybrid
Pricing: 3008 from £32,630
Engine: Petrol 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol with 21kW hybrid electric motor
Transmission: six-speed automatic, front-wheel drive
Body style: five-door, five-seat SUV
CO2 emissions: 126g/km
Fuel consumption: 50.4mpg
Top speed: 124mph
0-62mph: 10.0 seconds
Power: 136hp (system total)
Torque: 230Nm (petrol) 55Nm (electric motor)
Boot space: 520 litres all seats in use, 1,671 litres rear seats folded
Styling
To go with its new hybrid powertrain, the 3008 gets dramatic new... er... *checks notes*... actually, scrub that. We'll start again...
To go with its new hybrid powertrain, the 3008, dramatically, gets absolutely no styling updates whatsoever. Up at the front, the lights, the grille, and the chrome Peugeot rampant lion badge remain utterly un-different. Ditto the single 'fang' style LED daytime running light blades. At the back, it's striking in its similarness, with the same black bar connecting the two, jewel-like brake lights and the same low-roof styling.
To be fair, the 3008 is still a handsome car, and one that hardly looks out of date even almost eight years on from when it was first launched. Equally, although Peugeot has fitted this new hybrid petrol engine, there was little point in going to town on restyling a car that's going to be effectively replaced in six months' time by an all-new, all-electric e-3008. Mind you, this 3008 will remain on sale for a time, alongside the new one, as the first hybrid-engined versions of the all-new 3008 will take some time to arrive on sale.
Interior
Inside, there are almost as few changes to the 3008’s cabin as there are to the exterior. You get the same small, hexagonal wheel which sits low, almost brushing your thighs, and the same all-digital instruments which sit high on the dashboard. In the centre, you’ve guessed it, is the same ten-inch touchscreen with the same ‘piano key’ shortcut buttons beneath. Frustratingly, it also has the same, older, software which is maddeningly difficult to use, and which segregates the air conditioning controls to their own menu screen which makes them annoying to adjust.
Actually, it’s not all bad. The front seats — featuring luxurious heavy quilting to their synthetic leather surfaces — are very comfortable, the new fabric finishing to the dashboard and door cards looks and feels expensive, and the only real demerit is that the high centre console and the cramped area around the pedals can make the whole driving position feel a little scrunched up.
Oh, wait! We’ve found something different! The hybrid 3008 gets a new gear selector, with the metal toggle switch, lifted from the e-2008 and 308, replacing the old grab-handle gear selector. Honestly, that’s it though.
Practicality
As you'd expect from a mid-size SUV, the 3008 is roomy enough for family life, albeit the fact that it's based on an older platform means that it's perhaps not as space-efficient as some younger rivals. Certainly, a Skoda Karoq feels roomier in the back. Nonetheless, there's good legroom and headroom in the back seats, and a good view out. The transmission tunnel means that anyone sitting in the perched-up middle rear seat is going to need to splay their feet out, but that's sadly par for the course for most cars in this class.
At 520 litres, the boot is big enough to be useful (albeit, again, behind the Skoda when it comes to outright volume). Up front, there are big cupholders, large door bins, a butterfly-style front armrest which opens to reveal a usefully big storage box, and a roomy tray next to the gear selector. The glove box is annoyingly small, though.
Performance
Technically, the 3008’s new hybrid petrol engine is a mild-hybrid, as it uses a 48-volt system and a compact battery, which fits under the front seat (the driver’s seat in this left-hand drive car, the passenger seat in UK cars) to drive a 21kW electric motor which is integrated into a new six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
This adds a small power boost compared to the old 1.2-litre PureTech petrol three-cylinder turbo engine, which this hybrid version will steadily replace. The output rises from 130hp to 136hp, and while the torque of the engine remains the same — at 230Nm — the hybrid motor can chime in with a short thump of 55Nm extra when needed.
All of this, for the most part, works pretty seamlessly. The 3008 hybrid will start on electric power if it has enough charge in the battery, and while the three-cylinder petrol engine isn’t the quietest car in its class, it doesn’t overly abuse your ears when it does kick in.
Performance is noticeably more muscular than that of the old non-hybrid version. It’s not dramatically quicker (the 0-100km/h time is virtually identical) but you do definitely feel that extra slug of electric torque when you ask for a quick burst of power to accelerate into a gap in the traffic.
Overall refinement is fine, but at times the gearbox can suddenly wallop its way through a gear-change, leaving you with a big thud that comes up through the steering wheel and pedals.
Fuel consumption is… questionable. Peugeot reckons that the new hybrid should average 50mpg, which would be good as the old non-hybrid 1.2 would generally return more like 38mpg in daily driving. Over our test route, mostly consisting of choked-up urban streets with brief dual-carriageway sprints, we recorded a rather disappointing 43mpg overall. It’s not a terrible figure in itself, but given that Peugeot reckons you can spend as much as 50 per cent of your urban drive on electric power alone, it’s not the best.
However, the hybrid engine does score one major victory before you’ve even turned it on — it knocks a full 20g/km off the 3008’s CO2 emissions figure which will save you £45 off your first year’s road tax.
Ride & Handling
The 3008 has always been a keen car to drive, within the bounds of its family SUV class, and that hasn't changed. True, the rest of the world has moved on dynamically, leaving the 3008 trailing slightly in the wake of some of the competition, but it's still a perfectly nice thing to drive.
The steering feels initially sharp (thank the tiny wheel for much of that) and the 3008 grips well and steers accurately. The ride comfort is pretty soft in general, no doubt helped by the relative lightness of this hybrid system, so it's a comfy car even over urban cracks and lumps.
At higher speeds, it sits stable and secure in its lane, even if you've switched off the lane-keeping steering system. Not quite as sparkling as it once was? That's probably fair to say, but then it still feels a touch more enthusiastic behind the wheel than the likes of the Nissan Qashqai, if perhaps a little less so than Renault's new Austral.
Value
We haven't been given prices for the new 3008 hybrid as yet, so we'll have to come back and update this section when prices and specifications have been announced. That said, the whole point of this engine is to replace the old base-model 1.2-litre version, so it should be one of the better-value 3008s you can buy.
Verdict
The 3008 hybrid leaves a couple of questions unanswered. Can it be as economical as Peugeot claims? Not on the basis of this test drive, but perhaps a drive in more familiar circumstances might yield better results. Will it represent good enough value? We’ll have to wait for the full pricing to be announced to judge that. Is it an improvement over the old 1.2 petrol? Ah, now that we can answer — yes it is, as the performance feels undoubtedly more muscular and it comes at no cost in fuel consumption (perhaps even with a general improvement, we’ll see) and with dramatically improved CO2 emissions.
