Peugeot e-208 long term test

The car Peugeot e-208 GT 51kWh Run by James Tute, Content Editor

Why it's here To see if Peugeot’s small electric car is agile enough for city driving while remaining practical for longer trips to the Shires

Needs to Be well-suited to rush-hour traffic and comfy on motorway drives, with enough range for hassle-free long journeys

Mileage 6476 List price £32,900 Target Price £32,900 Price as tested £34,760 Official range 248 miles Test range 191 miles Private price now £19,890 Dealer price now £18,760 Running costs (excl. depreciation) Charging £721.45, one-year service £145

12 May 2025 – Flawless? Far from it… but I’ll miss my plug-in Pug

It’s time to say goodbye to my Peugeot e-208 and consider how the reality of running it has measured up to my expectations.

And that’s going to be tough on the e-208 because my expectations were quite high. In most respects, as a small electric car it seemed to be my perfect choice of model – and that’s a lot to live up to.

So has it suited me better than the fluorescent clothing I rashly decided to wear for my goodbye photoshoot? Well, let’s start with the three criteria at the top of my list: dealing with rush-hour traffic, keeping me comfy on motorways and going far enough on a charge to make long journeys hassle free.

The e-208 is not as tiny as some small cars but at a smidge shorter than the rival Vauxhall Corsa it’s little enough to duck and dive around city streets easily.

On paper, the Peugeot's isn't particularly rapid, either – 0-62mph officially takes 8.2 seconds – but I never felt held back when traffic lights changed to green. And with so many city centre roads covered by 20mph speed limits, sustained acceleration isn’t one of my must-haves.

Indeed, while the e-208’s three driving modes meant I could have unleashed a bit more performance by switching from default Normal to the Sport setting, I rarely bothered. Likewise, I didn’t spend much time in the third mode, Eco, which you can read about in my fourth e-208 report.

My car wasn’t fitted with the optional £300 Drive Assist Pack Plus, which includes adaptive cruise control – a feature I find very helpful in stop-start city traffic. Did I miss it? Maybe a little, especially at the end of a long journey, but I found the speed limiter setting on the more basic cruise control easy to use and a decent substitute.

Speaking of long journeys, I’ve done a fair few trips from London up to Cheshire or Shropshire and back in the past few months. Once I’d got used to Peugeot’s quirky driver display set-up and adopted a very laid-back sitting position – as detailed in my first e-208 report – I was very comfy clocking up the motorway miles.

If I could wave a magic wand and make one improvement here, it would be to increase the insulation from wind and road noise, which had me cranking up the stereo at 70mph. And it’s important to note that my car was fitted with £500 upgraded seats, which I found well-padded and easy to adjust electrically, as well as coming with heating and massage functions.

Those motorway journeys placed much more demand on my car’s drive battery, and in Winter I saw the range fall below 200 miles, and sometimes well below. It's important to note here that my 51kWh version predates the new bigger-battery e-208, so you may well get a better performance if you order one now.

Efficiency improved as the weather warmed up, and at one point I saw the equivalent of 230 miles from a full charge. The e-208’s 248-mile official range might be achievable with very tentative driving in a heatwave, but I can’t imagine I’d ever have the patience to try.

In common with many electric Stellantis models, the e-208 has a maximum charging speed of 100kW, and if I stopped to use a public charger with 40-50 miles of range left, I’d usually be plugged in for the best part of an hour.

That was okay because it gave me a chance to stretch my legs and have a coffee and a sandwich to break up the long drive, but there were a couple of occasions when an extra 50 or 100 miles of real-world range would have made life a lot easier.

There’s another aspect of the e-208 that I’d change if I could: the flimsiness of some bits of the interior. Yes, it looks pretty good, but it’s all very dark and it’s easy to find plastic parts that feel cheap. That flimsiness seemed at one point to extend to the infotainment screen, which failed a few weeks after I took delivery of the car.

Speaking of the interior, I often wished I’d dropped one £400 option, Connected 3D Navigation (£400). I didn't end up using it much because I preferred running a sat-nav app on my phone though the touchscreen using Apple CarPlay. Instead, I'd have optioned the £500 panoramic glass roof to brighten things up inside.

And yet… I’ve enjoyed living with the e-208 more than any car I can think of. Its combination of on-demand electric thrust, involving handling, compact dimensions and bright looks really won me over.

Yes, in purely objective terms there are better small electric cars available, but I’ll genuinely miss my Agueda Yellow plug-in Pug.

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