The Peugeot e-208 has received some decent upgrades for the 2023 model year, including 15 per cent more power and more than 10 per cent additional range – though it’s no clearer whether it’ll be coming to Australia anytime soon.
“Due to the unprecedented environment the global automotive industry is currently facing, there has been an unavoidable delay, until 2023, in the local arrival of Peugeot Australia’s first battery electric vehicles,” a spokesperson for Peugeot Citroen Australia told CarExpert.
“Our commitment to introduce electric vehicle offerings to the Australian market remains unaltered, with plans being finalised across electric passenger, SUV and LCV product offerings.”
Back to the e-208, Peugeot says it has achieved the quoted performance and range improvements from “major technological developments” which include a new, more efficient 51kWh (48.1kWh usable) 400V battery pack, and a new 115kW/260Nm electric motor (up 15kW).
These new EV bits sound very similar to the stuff confirmed for the new e-308 revealed earlier in the month, though the updated e-208 will be even more energy efficient – Peugeot says it’s aiming for average energy consumption of “around 12kWh per 100km” versus the larger e-308’s impressive 12.7kWh claim.
Such improved efficiency should help the e-208 achieve “up to 400 kilometres” on the WLTP cycle, though official certification is still in progress. The e-208’s previous range claim was 362 kilometres.
Peugeot enhanced the e-208 as recently as late 2021, adding 22km more range than the original version launched in 2019 through a heat pump and humidity sensor that increased the efficiency of the vehicles heating and cooling systems, an “A+” tyre compound for the 16-inch alloy wheel option which minimises energy losses through friction, as well as a revised transmission ratio for the electric motor’s gearbox “that increases range on road and motorway journeys”.
Further, the company claims the upgraded heat pump and sensor brought a real-world range increase of 4km “in urban traffic at temperatures close to 0 degrees celsius”.
The e-208 has been a sales success for the brand in various parts of Europe, itself part of one of the most popular model ranges in the region.
Peugeot says almost 110,000 e-208 vehicles have been produced since it was launched in 2019, and it’s the top-selling electric vehicle across all segments in its home market of France.
The brand’s local arm has confirmed its first EV offering in Australia will be a Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) in 2023, meaning one of the French brand’s vans – the Boxer, Expert or Partner, all of which offer an EV version abroad – will be the first cab off the rank for Peugeot’s electric vehicle rollout.
Going by the company’s statement above, however, it seems electric passenger cars and SUVs are on the table, which boosts prospects of seeing the e-208, e-308 and e-2008 in local showrooms in the next 12-18 months also. Stay tuned to CarExpert for all the latest.
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