Peugeot 508 PSE SW

HELLO

£55,795 OTR/£55,795 as tested/£830pcm

WHY IT’S HERE

Fast Peugeots are usually best kept small. What about a fast PHEV wagon?

DRIVER

Charlie Rose

HERE WE ARE THEN, THE FIRST HIGH-PERFORMANCE PEUGEOT IN OVER five years, and the first to feature those three letters in its name: PSE. What do they stand for, I hear you ask? Peugeot Sport Engineered, the brand’s new performance division, and with Peugeot’s upcoming return to Le Mans, the PSE division has a promising future ahead of it.

Our particular model comes in estate guise, which is just as well because it will spend the coming months with myself, TG’s fresh-faced video chief, lugging cameras around. Although it will spend a lot of the time behind the lens being chased down by all manner of metal, this Peugeot certainly has no reason to be camera shy.

At a glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking it came out of Germany, not France. But despite its likeness to its German counterparts, you won’t find a hairy chested engine under the bonnet. Instead, there’s a plug-in hybrid drivetrain with a familiar 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine up front and an electric motor on each axle. All that adds up to a power output of 355bhp, which is good for 0–62mph in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 155mph. No slouch, but possibly not the mind-blowing performance you’d expect from a halo car.

But what about the driving? First impressions on a long motorway drive down to south Wales were good. The ride comfort was superb and the adaptive cruise control with active lane keep assistance just worked. To my delight there are even massaging seats, essential after a day of filming cars if you ask me. They come as standard, by the way, for the 508 PSE’s £55,795 starting price. Wince or not, our sporty Pug is here to stay. Let’s see if it can justify its price.