Peugeot 508 PHEV
Plug-in power comes at a cost for cool Pug
WITH strict emissions regulations coming into force in 2020, cars like the Peugeot 508 Hybrid are soon going to become much more common. And it’s as much for the manufacturers’ benefit as the buyers’; any car brands that fail to hit the CO2 targets will be subject to some eye-watering fines.
Peugeot has certainly managed to nail the low-emission brief with the 508; officially it emits just 29g/km of CO2. But before we go into the details of how those emissions are possible, let’s recap on the 508. The Skoda Superb rival does things a little differently from others in the class, prioritising style while most competitors maximise space and practicality. At least the addition of the hybrid powertrain hasn’t affected the boot capacity, which still stands at 487 litres.
The 508 is fun to drive, too, and this Hybrid doesn’t feel drastically different from the rest of the range. Grip is decent, the car stays flat through the corners, and once up to speed it feels stress-free at a cruise.
Inside and out, there’s not much to separate the Hybrid from the conventional petrol and diesel. The body has a couple of subtle Hybrid badges stuck to the front wings, and there’s an extra flap on the nearside three-quarter panel, which covers the charging port. Step inside, and the dashboard still has the wow factor of a concept car, only now there’s some revised graphics for the digital dials to show the energy use of both battery and combustion parts of the powertrain. The infotainment system – which is still irritating to use, not least because the heating functions are controlled for the most part by the touchscreen – gets a couple of extra menus.
Press the piano key switch with a lightning motif on it to access the first menu, a page displaying some hybrid-specific functions. These include a real-time graphic of the hybrid system’s energy flow – how the power mix varies between electric and petrol during driving – plus a setting which allows you to hold charge in the battery for any lowemissions zones later in a journey.
It’s a mode in which you’ll be able to do roughly 33 miles, at speeds of up to 84mph. Prod the starter button, and the 508 silently moves off, with the 108bhp motor perfectly adequate for keeping up in urban traffic.
Should you need a little extra shove, the 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine chimes in. This makes an extra 178bhp on its own, but with both petrol and electrical pieces of the hybrid puzzle working at their best at different times, the total is 222bhp. That’s the same as in the most powerful petrol 508, but with this car carrying a couple of hundred kilos’ worth of battery pack, outright performance is blunted slightly.
The 508’s Hybrid set-up isn’t quite as slick as some competitors’. Ask for more power and it takes a little while for the petrol engine to wake up and then make its own contribution. Of course, you can nudge the drive select switch into Sport, keeping the petrol engine ready at all times, but this, of course, uses more fuel.
And saving fuel is what the 508 Hybrid has the potential to do exceptionally well. Officially, it manages 217mpg, but that’s completely dependent on the sort of journeys you do, and how good you are at keeping the battery topped up.
If you have a readily available charging point, say at home or at a workplace, and only a modest commute, it’s entirely
“Peugeot has nailed the low-emission brief with the 508; officially it emits just 29g/km of CO2”
possible that you’ll barely need to use the Peugeot’s petrol engine at all.
The 508 Hybrid isn’t available in the most basic Active trim level, but it’s offered in the other three. The Allure has all the equipment you’d really need: 17-inch alloys, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, built-in sat-nav and a reversing camera. Prices for the Hybrid start from £34,875 in Allure trim and climb to £40,630 for the GT. That’s a lot of money for a private buyer to stomach, and given that petrol or diesel versions cost several thousand pounds less, you’d need to cover serious mileages (or live in a low-emission zone) before you start to recoup the cost.
However, for company car users, it makes a lot of sense, because new Benefit-in-Kind tax bands very much favour fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. It means that, for a 508 Hybrid in Allure trim, users in the 40 per cent tax bracket will be paying £1,395 per year. By contrast, even the least polluting diesel, the 1.5 BlueHDi making the best part of 100bhp less, will cost £2,415.