Styling
We know coupe-SUVs exist almost purely from an aesthetic point of view - after all, why make an ostensibly practical vehicle type (an SUV estate) less usable by severely sloping its roofline and rear screen, and then charging more for the privilege of owning it, unless it's to satisfy those wanting nothing more than kerb appeal? - but if, like many people, us included, you find coupe-SUVs a little objectionable, then the E-5008 is the perfect remedy. Although Peugeot should be commended for making the smaller, five-seat E-3008 look pretty nice and maintain as much rear-seat passenger space as it could, the fact remains that the larger E-5008's longer roofline and upright rear hatch just suits this overall design of car much better. There's a greater proportionality to it and the higher roof also serves to make the rear three-quarter view of this electric SUV all the more balanced and pleasing.
And there's also more space between those somewhat fussy 20-inch aerodynamically optimised alloy wheels (these rims about the only design detail of the E-5008 we're less than convinced by, incidentally) too, with the measurement from axle to axle coming in at 2,900mm here. That's an increase of a healthy 161mm over the E-3008, which is something we will come back to in two further sections of this review (below) to further state why this is a major benefit to the overall package that is the E-5008. Anyway, with its 'lion's claw' front light details, two-tone paintjob and smoothed-off rear end, this seven-seat Peugeot family carrier is a most fine-looking contrivance indeed.
Interior
Up front, the E-5008's fancy fascia is identical to that found in the E-3008. This means you get the huge and attractive 21-inch Panoramic iCockpit digital human-machine interface, as well as the tastefully uplit 'alcove' in the dashboard, plus plenty of natty fabric trim on the dashboard and the seat backs to break up what might otherwise be a sea of various charcoal-grey material finishing. And all of this works well: the E-5008's cabin is very easy on the eye, it feels solidly put-together and constructed of satisfying tactile textures, and it all works intuitively too, although the configurable iToggles below the central infotainment touchscreen would probably be better as just a row of Peugeot's 'piano key' shortcut buttons. Which is the explicit physical feature the iToggles have replaced. Sigh. The irony.
Practicality
This is a strong suit of the Peugeot E-5008, which its parent company is attempting to position as one of the more affordable seven-seat electric SUVs going. There is one notable negative point, though, which is the fact that the middle row of seating in this new car is actually not quite as practical as the same set-up found in the
immediate predecessor model. In that you can't slide each of the three seats individually; you
can fold the seat backs 40:20:40 if you want, but the central pew's base is attached to one of the outer seats' item so the bench portion slides forwards and backwards in a 60:40 split instead. They also only have two Isofix points for child seats as well, rather than three across row two as the old car had. Curses.
But that's about where our gripes about the E-5008's interior practicality start and end. Sure, the third row of seating is still of a more
bijou nature in terms of space, so taller folk need not apply to sit back there, but by the same token the sixth and seventh chairs are by no means vestigial, so shorter adults or children will be more than happy sitting in the very rear of the passenger compartment for mid- and long-range trips. Up front is the usual goodly amount of storage solutions and spaces for various odds and sods, and with the second row of chairs slid back to their maximum extent, the Peugeot's stretched wheelbase - remember that? - results in a massive amount of legroom for anyone sitting in the middle of the car.
Then there's the boot. Electric cars can suffer for cargo capacity due to the placement of their battery packs and various ancillaries, but not the E-5008, which sits on the STLA Medium platform which is EV-centric. So even with all of the Peugeot's seven seats in use, there's still a useful 259-litre boot, which rises to a colossal 748 litres if you only need the regulation five seats in use onboard. Fold all of the rear chairs down, though, and a gigantic 1,815 litres are on offer, while you can configure the load area multiple different ways to balance your humans-to-luggage requirements precisely to your will. As something flexible which should meet most larger families' needs in terms of interior practicality, the E-5008 seems like a major success.
Performance
Sorry to keep banging on about it, but just like the E-3008, the E-5008 will be offered with three drivetrain configurations. There are two models using the smaller 73kWh battery pack, a single-motor, front-wheel-drive variant with 157kW (213hp) and then a more potent dual-motor model packing up to 235kW (320hp). There will be a third way, though, which is another single-motor E-5008, with a slightly more potent 170kW (231hp) propulsion unit... but also a colossal 96kWh battery pack. This long-range derivative is said to be able to do up to 410 miles in a single hit, although any E-5008 has an official claimed range of more than 300 miles, which is decent.
Not quite as decent as the E-3008, though, because - naturally - the bigger, more capacious E-5008 is heavier than the smaller Peugeot eSUV, to the tune of 110kg. That means this base-spec (in terms of drivetrain) E-5008 GT is in excess of a whopping 2.2 tonnes, yet somehow that figure doesn't seem as shocking for a seven-seat family wagon as 2.1 tonnes does for a five-seat 'coupe'. Anyway, the extra timber on the E-5008's frame has that expected hit on driving range, as well as blunting the performance slightly; this GT can do 0-62mph in 9.7 seconds, which is almost a whole second slower than the same single-motor, 73kWh E-3008.
And yet... we find ourselves preferring the way the E-5008 drives. Like any Stellantis EV, it doesn't genuinely make its peak outputs of 213hp/345Nm unless you remember to click it into Sport mode, each and every time you 'fire' it up to drive it because otherwise it defaults to Normal mode - and that means 190hp/300Nm. Throttle feel and response are both good in Normal, though, and the way the car accelerates is just about acceptable, so it's no major drama if you forget to engage Sport, although we'd stick clear of the horribly fuzzy right-hand pedal of Eco mode and its reduced outputs of 170hp/270Nm; they're not entirely adequate figures for 2,218kg of SUV, especially if you then increase that kerb weight figure by cramming a full complement of humans and their associated clobber within the SUV.
However, the smooth delivery of the power provided and the excellent judgement of the three levels of regenerative braking, adjusted by the paddles on the steering wheel, make driving the Peugeot E-5008 an easy-going delight. It's not quick and it's not slow; it's just fine, for daily motoring needs, and that's grand.
As are the charging speeds. The E-5008 has a maximum DC rate of 160kW, which'll take the battery from 20-80 per cent in as little as half-an-hour if you find the right public connection. It doesn't have a 22kW AC capability, mind, although on an 11kW connection you'll need four-and-a-half hours to take the battery from 0-100 per cent. For the same charging job on a more typical 7.4kWh wallbox, that time rises to nearly seven hours, but all of these are perfectly acceptable timescales, especially for those lucky enough to have home-charging facilities and the ability to top up their electric SUV overnight on cheaper domestic-supply tariffs.
Finally, Peugeot officially claims about 4.3 miles/kWh from the E-5008 157kW model, although we saw more like 3.3 miles/kWh. And that was two-up with minimal luggage, driving on largely flat terrain on a warm (18 degrees C) day. Admittedly, the car's climate control was running in air-con mode for the vast majority of our test, but we'd perhaps have hoped for more like 3.5 or 3.6 miles/kWh from the Peugeot when it was running in such light trim on roads which were hardly taxing in terms of inclines. Furthermore, a bit of steady motorway work gave back more like 3.2 miles/kWh, so it's unlikely that any E-5008 will actually cover 300 miles or more to a single charge, if this electrical consumption is anything to go by.
Ride & Handling
That extended wheelbase of the Peugeot E-5008 makes it look better on the outside than the E-3008. It also makes it roomier inside too. And, as a final bonus, it makes this GT model ride far, far better as well - which is about our biggest bugbear of the E-3008. So much so that it took a
UK drive in an Allure-grade E-3008 to finally have us accepting the ride comfort levels of the smaller French electric SUV.
No such qualms for the big boy, though, although we should add the caveat that we drove the E-5008 in its racier GT specification on some of the smoothest, most unmarked roads we've ever seen as we took the Peugeot on a road trip from Denmark into southern Sweden across the Öresund Bridge, so whether the seven-seat SUV can replicate this performance on the disgraceful, cratered wreckage of tarmac that passes for the UK's 'roads' network remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, we can only report as we find, and we found the E-5008 to be an absolute delight to travel in. It's quiet, it's incredibly comfortable, and it eases itself across whatever lumps and bumps you may find (in the lower corners of Scandinavia) with a grace and goodwill that few big-wheeled EVs can match. It also seems to be brilliantly acoustically isolated from tyre roar and wind noise, so even at 70mph the Peugeot maintains a remarkably high degree of civility.
The pay-off for these exceptional good manners in terms of rolling refinement is that this is not the most energetic Peugeot you'll ever drive in the corners. Light, feel-free steering and a dollop of body roll combine with an almost complete lack of information from the usual sources about what the chassis is up to, with all this adding up to soon dissuade the driver from pushing the E-5008 to its dynamic limits. But, to be fair to it, this is an electric, seven-seat family SUV - it doesn't need to be a hot hatch in disguise, and as the handling is perfectly clean and proficient enough if you just keep things tidy, then we'd be more than prepared to sacrifice a modicum of outright driver interaction in favour of the cultured way the E-5008 rides.
Value
Prices for the E-5008 have yet to be confirmed, although we were given the nod by a Peugeot insider that something around £2,500 on top of an equivalent E-3008's figures, model for model, would not be out of the question. To be sold in both Allure and GT specifications just like its smaller sibling, the E-5008 should therefore be in the ballpark of £48,350 for an Allure and £52,150 as a GT, but we'll wait to see what Peugeot confirms on that score.
Specifications are generous on both grades, with all the essential tech on the Allure and various high-end luxuries added to the GT, so that makes some more sense of the E-5008's prices. It is, of course, as an electric more expensive to buy than straightforward ICE-powered (and highly talented) alternatives, such as the
Skoda Kodiaq, the
Nissan X-Trail and the recently refreshed
Kia Sorento. But on the other hand, it's quite a lot cheaper than a
Kia EV9 and it should also prove to be a whole heap of cash less than the
Volvo EX90 when that finally arrives in the UK (it's on the Swedish company's website right now with a starting figure of £96,255...). Admittedly, the Peugeot is not as physically big or grand as either of those two electric seven-seat rivals, but it's more than good enough to perhaps tempt a few money-conscious consumers from Kia and Volvo showrooms into the dealerships of the French firm instead.
Verdict
Coming along soon after this zero-emission launch variant will be
136hp hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the 5008 (note, no 'E-' at the start of the badge there), but for our money this family transportation makes far more sense as the E-5008. Luckily, Peugeot has executed the formula quite brilliantly. It isn't ever hugely exciting to drive and it isn't exactly cheap, but otherwise the superb E-5008 is a comfortable, quiet, refined and attractive big SUV that could be run for peanuts if you avail yourself of a home charger. To our minds, that makes it a seriously tempting seven-seat SUV proposition indeed, electric or otherwise.
