Peugeot 308 long-term test: report 4
The plug-in version of Peugeot's 308 family car can officially travel up to 37 miles on electric power. However, now we're finding our what it's actually like to live with...
The car Peugeot 308 Hybrid 180 Allure Premium e-EAT8 Run by Kiall Garrett, senior videographer
Why it’s here To find out if the plug-in hybrid version of this family hatchback can be an efficient day-to-day workhorse
Needs to be Comfortable on long journeys and uber-efficient on short ones while having the space for lots of camera equipment
Mileage 9614 List Price £38,640 Target Price £35,974 Price as tested £38,460 Official economy 281.1mpg Test economy 48.1mpg
13 October 2023 – Charging up is charging me too much
Most plug-in hybrid cars, including my Peugeot 308, don't have the capability to charge at the same super-high speeds as electric cars. And since plug-in hybrids have a conventional engine to call on as well as their electric motors, that means most drivers are happy to charge up at home rather than using the public charging network.
That's certainly the case for me. Indeed, when speccing up my car, I decided not to opt for the £400 extra 7kW onboard charger, and instead figured that sticking with the 3.7kW standard speed would be just fine, getting me from flat to full in three hours and 31 minutes.
That works for me at home, but it does mean topping up at public chargers when I’m out and about on a quick shopping trip is, in my opinion, not worth it – I wouldn't get a meaningful amount of charge, so to me it’s not worth the money.
Even charging up at home costs me £3.90 to get 20-odd miles of real-world range, and some quick maths suggests a petrol car doing 40mpg would cost £3.40 to do the same miles. There are other, more impressive benefits to driving as much as I can using electric power, of course, and I'm enjoying the instant surge of acceleration I get thanks to my 308's electric motor, but – largely thanks to the huge mileages I cover – I'm yet to see many of the economical benefits.
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