Peugeot has been a little bit slow to get fully electric powertrains into some of its big-selling C-segment cars, beaten to the punch by the likes of Renault, Volkswagen and Cupra, as well as EV stalwarts Hyundai, Kia and Nissan. Because of that, we can now state with some confidence what is the going rate for a roughly Golf-sized, zero-emissions hatchback in 2023. And, rather inconveniently, it seems to be a fair bit less than is being asked for the new Peugeot e-308.
Perhaps it’s the influence of so many emerging, bargain-basement Chinese EVs; and, given that so many of us decide whether we can afford cars like this on the basis of a monthly finance payment in any case, perhaps the problem’s less of an actual problem than we might imagine it is. Peugeots hold their value rather well these days, after all.
Even so, in a market niche where you needn’t ultimately fork out more than £37,500 for an equivalent Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric, Kia Niro EV, Volkswagen ID 3, Fiat 600e or Jeep Avenger, and at a time when we’re all hyper-aware of exactly what kind of value for money we’re getting, doesn’t forty large for the very cheapest take on the electric 308 seem a touch steep?
It’s no steeper, to be fair, than is the equally new and technically related Vauxhall Astra Electric. Still, if you tend to feel that way about EVs in general, this one certainly won’t help.
The e-308 is available to order in the UK now in hatchback form, with an extended-body SW estate version to come soon. And it slots into the existing Peugeot 308 range at middle and upper trim-level tiers, so, unlike with the Citroën ë-C4, there’s no smaller-batteried, less powerful version to bring the cost down.