Styling
As we've already discussed the overarching design of the E-3008 in our previous review, here we'll focus on purely what makes the two UK specifications, entry-level Allure (from £45,850) and range-topping GT (from £49,650), different from one another. And the truth is... very little. So much so, in fact, that some of Peugeot's people confessed it was a struggle to tell them apart from a distance. But, in essence, the Allure has slightly less distinctive head- and taillight signatures (although it retains those 'Lion claw' daytime running lamp strakes in the front bumper), it doesn't wear the new shield-shaped Peugeot corporate logo on its front wings, it has matte black detailing rather than a gloss-black finish for the lower body trims which frame the bumpers, the sills and the wheel arches - and then, in those latter items, it has 19-inch alloys of a symmetrical design, rather than the asymmetric, aerodynamically optimised 20s of the GT. Honestly, parked up in a line of randomly intermingled Allure and GT E-3008s, the lower-spec cars do not immediately stand out as aesthetically inferior in the slightest. So the Peugeot EV remains a reasonably handsome thing (as contentious coupe-SUVs go, that is) across the board, all told.
Interior
Again, it's subtle differentiation inside the E-3008, rather than a drastic step-up in quality when going from Allure to GT specification. All models enjoy the full 21-inch curved iCockpit display and dual-zone climate control, as well as a self-dimming interior mirror. This switches to a frameless item in the GT, which also gains sportier part-Alcantara upholstery, heated front seats, and a more detailed 'Alcove'. This is that section of the fascia that's between the fabric central beltline and the rubberised plastic upper deck, a concave feature which houses the air vents. In the GT, it has a printed aluminium pattern on it and that is used to good effect at night, where the extended eight-colour ambient lighting of the upper-spec Peugeot is reflected into the Alcove; in the Allure, there's a simpler downlight that glows beneath the curved touchscreen/cluster array. But we return to our original point here: aside from the seat covers, when you're sitting in an E-3008 Allure in the day (and thus, the fanciness or otherwise of the interior lighting is neither here nor there), it doesn't feel any less special or likeable than the GT. The French company even ensures the fabric pattern of the dash is repeated on the backs of the front seats, a little touch that helps to make sitting in the back of the base-spec EV feel as almost as luxurious as sitting in the front.
Practicality
With that sloping roofline, we've already pointed out that sitting in the second row of the Peugeot E-3008 is not as roomy as it might have been in the old
first-generation 3008, especially if you ask two taller people to sit line astern in the driver's seat and the right-hand outer-rear bench position. You should be able to get four adults comfortably seated onboard, however, provided they're not all giants, and the boot is a good shape and size, although we're baffled by the fact Peugeot is now saying it has 588 litres seats up and 1,663 litres with the rear row folded down. It showed us a slide that purported these figures, alongside the 520dm3-1,480dm3 numbers as well. And as at school we were always told that a dm3 is exactly equal to a litre, we're therefore not sure why there's a disparity (and why we've stuck with 520-1,480 litres in the tech spec here) - plus, if we're being frank, on a purely 'finger in the air' visual appraisal of the Pug's load bay, we'd be stunned if it actually had 588 litres to play with, even if you entirely removed the boot floor and charging cables/inflation kit that sit in the wheel well below it.
Anyway, aside from that, there are some nice storage features up front, albeit that wide and eye-catching centre console takes up a lot of space and perhaps doesn't have as much outright cargo capacity as you might imagine. Also, in traditional French-car style, the glovebox on right-hand-drive cars is feeble, as the fusebox's positioning scythes the volume of the 'box in half. Sigh.
Performance
No major changes to talk about here since our first drive overseas, so we're still in that slightly 'meh' phase when it comes to appraising the Peugeot E-3008's speed. At the moment, only the base-power, 73kWh-battery-equipped drivetrain is available for the electric SUV, which means 214hp and 345Nm of torque powering a truly astonishing 2,108kg vehicle weight; we said it a few weeks back and we'll say it again - even by the portly standards of present-day EVs, that's goliath for a single-motor model with its 'smaller' battery pack fitted. A physically similar-sized coupe-EV, albeit one supposedly from a higher class, that we drove most recently prior to the E-3008 is the
BMW iX2, and even with two motors fitted and a 313hp output, it weighs 13kg
less than the Peugeot (admittedly, it has a smaller 66.5kWh battery pack and it's this that generates the hefty mass of any EV).
So don't expect the single-motor E-3008 to be fast. It simply isn't, anywhere. It doesn't feel particularly lively off the line, it doesn't have impressive midrange pick-up to make overtakes a cinch on two-lane roads, and it'll soon run out of whatever the electrical version of 'puff' is if you keep the throttle in for extended periods of time. Now, granted, family crossover-SUVs do not need to be road rockets and there's plenty positive to be said for the way Peugeot has calibrated the E-3008's acceleration map to be as smooth and as refined as possible, but if you're expecting the sort of 'torque-shove' you get from many, many other EVs, prepare to be disappointed. You also need to remember that, like so many other Stellantis electrics, it'll only give its maximum outputs of 214hp/345Nm if you remember to flick it into Sport mode on the drive mode switch in the cabin. It defaults to Normal and 190hp/300Nm every time you switch the car on, while selecting Eco drops things further to 170hp/270Nm. At least in this last mode the throttle feel isn't appallingly fuzzy and unpleasant to deal with.
On the subject of its battery performance, both models lay claim to a WLTP printed range in excess of 300 miles and, when driving both the Allure and GT E-3008s on a warm day in the English-Welsh borderlands, the distance-to-empty readings on the cars' trip-computer displays impressively showed figures that matched up to these claims. According to the official published data, the 19-inch-shod Allure will do 327 miles to a charge while the GT on its 20s loses three miles outright, yet we actually saw 3.9 miles/kWh from the GT and a slightly lesser 3.8 miles/kWh from the Allure. To be fair, though, two points here: firstly, we drove the Allure on a more enjoyable and faster road route than the GT, so there were many more acceleration phases and higher speeds draining its battery in that time; and secondly, both of those electrical economy returns are superb, especially as we were running the climate control full-on in both cars to keep the cabin cool in the sunshine. So while neither single-motor E-3008 will probably ever achieve 300-miles-plus from a charge, they should certainly get close with a bit of careful driver management - and in excess of 220 miles ought to be easily attainable by even the most lead-footed of pilots.
Just a quick recap on charging times. At its slowest, on a typical 7.4kWh domestic AC wallbox, any 73kWh E-3008 will require eight hours of hook-up to go from 20-100 per cent state-of-charge. At the other end of the scale, its quickest DC rate is 160kW, capable of replenishing the Peugeot's power pack from 20-80 per cent in half-an-hour.
Ride & Handling
We have some good news for any Peugeot representatives reading this review here. Both the Allure and the GT UK cars we tried seemed to have a notably better ride than the French GT we drove just a few weeks back. However, ultimately the UK GT still felt that bit too leaden, an obvious corollary of having the massive unsprung weight of those 20-inch wheels at all four corners. Its low-speed ride was more cosseting than we experienced in France, but all too often here in the UK it still picked up only moderate imperfections in the road surface and amplified them into a sharp-edged level of comportment at town speeds. Like so many 'pseudo-sporty' specifications from most car manufacturers, the E-3008 GT's manner improves markedly as your pace rises and road surfaces are finished to a more acceptable standard than 'battle-scarred runway of a war-torn country's principal military airport', but it's still too brittle at sub-50mph for our liking.
Thankfully, the Allure is even better again and much more pleasant to ride in, thanks to the tyres' squishier sidewalls and reduced weight of its wheels. It's still not the last word in acoustic isolation and sophisticated suspension techniques, but its composure is upset far less frequently than the GT's is. It also seems to handle and steer with a little more life at the helm, suggesting the weight disparity between the 19- and the 20-inch wheels is quite substantial. While we wouldn't got so far as to say the E-3008 Allure masks its significant mass completely, nor would we ever attest that it's in any way thrilling to drive on quieter, interesting country routes - in terms of the handling, the overriding pace notes gleaned from a spirited driving session are that this electric coupe-SUV still washes into fun-sapping understeer way before it approaches what feel like its limits of ability - it conveys the general impression that it's all-of-a-piece happier in its own skin than the crunchier GT model. Handy, then, isn't it, that the preferable Allure is £3,800 cheaper than the GT, eh?
Value
And the closing statement in the sector above neatly brings us onto this thorny bit of the Peugeot E-3008 review. The prices haven't increased since we last reported on the EV and we've already listed them higher up in this piece. The E-3008 certainly feels like a quality enough item to (just about) justify the outlay and furthermore the standard equipment on the Allure is generous, while the GT spec adds various luxuries and desirables to the kit list for those additional pounds.
But whichever way you cut it, a C-segment crossover-SUV that's in the £45,000-£50,000 bracket is not exactly inexpensive, and certainly not when the old 3008 was
kicking off at £32,630 as recently as 2023. And remember, this single-motor, 73kWh model will prove to be the cheapest all-electric E-3008; the long-range, 231hp model with the 98kWh battery pack and a headline one-shot driving figure of 422 miles, and the dual-motor, 326hp flagship with the 6.5-second 0-62mph time, will both be more expensive again (let's not dwell on the fact that, with an additional 25kWh of battery cells, the kerb weight of the long-range E-3008 is almost certainly going to be the wrong side of 2.25 tonnes as well... ulp).
It also doesn't help the E-3008's case when the brilliance of something like, say, the
Skoda Enyaq is available from less than £39,000. Or that the next variant down the Peugeot's own 3008 range will be the 136hp petrol-electric hybrid, which is available in the same Allure and GT specifications for £34,660 and £38,160 accordingly - representing colossal savings of £11,190-£11,490 over their all-electric equivalents. So if you really like the look and interior of the Peugeot coupe-SUV, as a private buyer (at least) you will be fiscally much better off plumping for the mild hybrid version instead.
Verdict
The Peugeot E-3008 is a perfectly proficient and pleasant electric coupe-SUV, with smart styling, a high-quality interior and what appears to be very decent real-world range from its sizeable battery pack, so it certainly deserves to pique the buying public's interest. Yet we still feel like we are waiting for the 'wow' moment with this new Peugeot. Maybe that'll come from the 98kWh or 326hp E-3008 follow-ups. Maybe it'll be provided by either the 136hp hybrid or the forthcoming plug-in hybrid variants, both of which will lose their capital 'E' and hyphen in their model badges.
But, for now, the single-motor 73kWh E-3008 remains a curiously uninvolving machine, and quite a pricey one at that. However, on that financial note, at least we can definitively refer you to the more affordable Allure as the weapon of choice in the fledgling range of this Peugeot, as it transpires it has the sweeter ride comfort and slightly more fluid handling characteristics of the two specifications offered - and therefore is the one you should go for if the E-3008 ticks all of your required purchase boxes.
