BATTERY-POWERED PUG HAS COME A

THE first electric car I ever drove was a Peugeot.

In 1993 the French firm took a batch of 106 hatchbacks and converted them.

From memory, they were powered by a bank of six volt lead-acid batteries.

If you drove very gently, at town speeds you could get a range of more than 100 miles out of the car.

That’s impressive when you think how poor the range of early lithium-ion battery cars was even eight or nine years ago.

A batch of electric 106s was run in the town of La Rochelle as a joint project between the council and Peugeot.

It was an interesting concept but I didn’t reckon electric cars would take off. And for the next couple of decades I was right.

Twenty-seven years on, here’s another electric Peugeot – the e-208.

While other companies have focused on creating EVs that look completely different to ICE cars, such as Nissan’s Leaf and the Volkswagen ID.3 that’s coming later this year, Peugeot has decided to make its electric hatchback virtually identical to the petrol and dieselpowered versions.

The e-208 is available in all four levels, starting with the Active and running through the Allure, GT Line and flagship GT.

Peugeot only had GT-spec cars at the launch but, as you’ll read later, that’s not the version I’d buy.

First, though, to the important bit – the electrical hardware and the range it will give you.

The e-208 is fitted with a 50kWh battery pack that is configured and placed so that it doesn’t rob any luggage space – you get the same boot as a petrol 208, in other words.

Up front where the diesel and petrol engines usually live is a 138bhp electric motor driving the front wheels.

The really good news is that the e-208 is capable of being charged at a rate of 100kW.

That’s not very relevant at the moment because 100kW charging points are still rare, but more common

50kW superchargers will give your 208 some

80% of battery capacity in 30 minutes.

If you have, or can have, a 7kW wallbox at home, that time will be eight hours. And if you’re stuck with a domestic socket it will take 20 hours to charge.

You get the full luggage capacity in the electric Peugeot, but what you don’t get is a handy storage compartment for the charging cables.

Also annoying is the fact that a cable for domestic charging is an optional extra.

Perhaps Peugeot assumes, probably correctly, that few people will recharge their car from a domestic socket.

Now to the all-important subject of range. On a nice warm summer’s day you should have no trouble eking out the e-208’s official

211 miles.

Drive in winter and on motorways and

150 miles will be a more realistic target. Both numbers will work for most owners,

as will the 0-62mph acceleration