Peugeot E-3008 SUV Review (2024)

Introduction

With the electric car race established, Peugeot has been removing combustion engines and incorporating electric motors into its existing lineup for some time now.

Look for any Peugeot with 'E' before its name, and you’ll quickly tell which models are leaving petrol forecourts.

The new 3008 is the latest car to receive the treatment, with the E-3008 offering whisper-quiet, eco-friendly driving.

The French machine is built on the all-new ‘STLA Medium’ platform from parent company Stellantis. It is more ideally suited to electric vehicles, accommodating electric motors and batteries without compromising boot capacity or cabin space.

More battery cells can be squeezed in, too, offering an impressive range, which we'll reveal shortly.

Many manufacturers within the Stellantis group will use it, including a seven-seater Peugeot E-5008 later this year, but the E-3008 is the first.

So, is the new platform any good, and does the E-3008 live up to its billing?

That is what we’re aiming to find out.

At A Glance

Not sold on the Peugeot badge? You've likely not noticed many of the brand's cars on the roads recently - because the French manufacturer is a transformed entity right now bringing outlandish good looks to the market.

Whereas before, the E-3008 was styled as a hatchback-SUV crossover, it's now branded as a 'fastback SUV', hinting at coupe styling, which is evident at the back.

As expected, the new 3008 has a striking front end made up of a mesh grille, although on the E-3008, the mesh is just patterns on a solid panel.

LED ‘claw’ light bars run down each side, while there’s a compact triangular headlight arrangement, chiselled bodywork, and two air intakes.

The side is, by contrast, relatively flat, with modest wheel arches, although a shapely side skirt adds some of the quirkiness that’s in plentiful supply at the front.

The rear features a sloping roofline, complemented by a roof spoiler, while the back drops off from the bottom of the rear windscreen like a cliff edge.

Three LED lights adorn each side, joined by a horizontal black strip which spans the width of the boot. There is an ample blank space beneath it, while the number plate sits in a blackened, wide, hexagonal opening at the bottom.

The Peugeot E-3008 is angular - squared off in places, more rounded in others - but it’s got glittering levels of personality.

Whether it's attractive is up to you - there’s more than a whiff of ‘love or hate’ about the aesthetics.

Key Features

Just two trims are offered on the Peugeot E-3008.

Allure features 19-inch Fuji alloys, a 21-inch panoramic curved display containing a digital instrument cluster and an infotainment screen, with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, navigation, DAB radio and voice control, and dual-zone climate control.

You also get another touchscreen with configurable buttons to control various car features, a wireless phone charger, keyless entry, a reversing camera, and grey fabric upholstery.

The GT trim gets 20-inch Yosemite alloys, pixel LED headlights, a hands-free electric tailgate, adaptive cruise control, heated front seats and steering wheel, eight-colour ambient lighting, and Alcantara upholstery.

One big disappointment is that the heat pump - a common standard feature on electric cars that enables the cabin to be pre-heated, often on a timer - is an optional extra. Given the number of cold mornings we get in the UK, this seems like a misjudgement.

Regarding power, the standard 3008 is a mild hybrid with a 1.2-litre petrol engine and six-speed automatic gearbox, producing 136PS. A plug-in hybrid will be following later in the year, too. But we are interested in the all-electric E-3008, which features a single electric motor producing 210PS. However, other electric variants will be launched soon, and we'll cover them shortly.

Range & Batteries

The Peugeot E-3008 has a 73kWh battery, almost 50 per cent larger than any previous Peugeot EV battery.

It is capable of a claimed 326-mile range, although we were on course to achieve about 260 miles in the real world. Your electric range will depend on road and weather conditions and your driving style.

A larger 98kWh battery will be launched next year, bringing the official figure to a class-leading 435 miles, with 20PS more power.

A dual-motor version offering all-wheel drive will also follow with the 73kWh battery, delivering 320PS.

Performance & Drive

The all-new Peugeot E-3008 isn’t especially fast - zero to 62mph takes 8.8 seconds - no doubt hindered by its bulk, as it weighs a smidge over 2.1 tonnes and tops out at 105mph.

If power is important, next year's all-wheel-drive version, with its additional 110PS, will shave nearly 2.5 seconds off that time.

8.8 seconds isn't bad, though, and performance-seekers are unlikely to lease an E-3008 anyway. Plus, all-electric cars have plenty of torque, so it seems quicker than it actually is (if you don’t look at the speedometer).

In terms of handling, we were impressed, although the steering doesn’t really weight up in the bends and lacks feel.

For a heavy SUV, we weren’t expecting it to be sprightly, but the new Stellantis platform ensures as much weight as possible (notably the battery) is positioned low down. This creates a low centre of gravity – vital for avoiding body lean, which kills the handling in any car.

It isn’t lean-free, though, and at times, the vehicle’s mass is very noticeable. But it made light work of threading through twisty backroads, with plenty of traction from the tyres.

You will experience the French car's limits easily if you're going too quickly, though. While it’s not particularly fun to drive or brilliantly agile, it was better than we expected when we read the kerb weight.

It is manageable around villages and towns, and overtaking on the open road is a breeze.

The E-3008 has a setup slightly biased towards handling, which compromises the ride comfort. Its weight presses down on potholes and undulations, while it sometimes feels somewhat unsettled and a tad harsh. Don’t get us wrong, the Peugeot is by no means uncomfortable, but rivals offer more forgiving rides, which are likely to leave you more relaxed.

The regenerative braking is controlled by pulling paddles behind the steering wheel. Even in its maximum setting, it’s not quite strong enough to allow one-pedal driving (where simply taking your foot off the accelerator causes the car to come to a stop), and it feels a little limited, considering we turned it up fully. We have tested better regen braking systems than this, and it took us a while to get used to it.

Charging

The Peugeot E-3008 can be charged at a rate of 160kW, meaning a 20 to 80 per cent top-up takes around half an hour.

In about eight hours, a 7kW home wall box will achieve a 20-100 per cent charge.

The all-new car has a smart charging function that adjusts the time and power it charges to optimise costs, which is good if your energy provider reduces off-peak tariffs.

Running Costs & Emissions

With no miles-per-gallon to worry about, you're driving an emissions-free car, so road tax is free for the next year until the Government begins billing electric vehicles next April.

Significant savings can be made on Benefit In Kind tax if you’re after a company car, as electric vehicles sit in the lowest band.

We don’t yet know what insurance group the car will be in.

Despite energy prices soaring in recent years, an electric car will be cheaper to run than a petrol or even diesel car. Electric cars have fewer moving parts, so maintenance costs will be cheaper as well - and servicing is only required every two years or 16,000 miles.

It is too early to tell how this new platform will perform in terms of reliability, but Peugeot has improved over the years. However, it still lags behind East Asian brands such as Kia.

If you’re interested in the mild-hybrid, it returns 44-52mpg, emitting 124g/km of CO2.

Interior & Technology

The E-3008 features a strikingly futuristic interior with a premium feel.

Indeed, the Peugeot better resembles a spaceship than a car. When you’re surrounded by grey fabric that wouldn’t look out of place around a control panel in Star Trek - it’s not hard to understand why Peugeot calls it the ‘i-Cockpit’.

The fabric dominates the cabin aesthetic, running along a high centre console. It retains a constant height until it merges into the dashboard, covering every inch of space behind the steering wheel and in front of the passenger side.

It then joins the doors, flaring out at the sides to provide somewhere to rest your arms on a long drive, cocooning you in your seat.

In the GT version, you get Alcantara instead, while Nappa leather is available on both Allure and GT trims.

‘i-Cockpit’ refers to the integrated, panoramic digital instrument display and infotainment touchscreen housed within a single 21-inch unit.

It looks lovely and is the best yet in a Stellantis car. It offers a generally responsive system with crisply clear graphics, although we found it was prone to lagging a little, so we'll hope software optimisations are on the horizon.

When programming a route, the SatNav assesses the battery level and, if required, automatically includes charging stops.

A smartphone app can be used to keep an eye on the car's current charge and charging progress remotely when parked. The app also allows you to programme a route that can then be sent to the vehicle.

The dashboard's centre features a smaller screen, the i-Toggle. It offers customisable touch-sensitive shortcut buttons for the infotainment system.

Sadly, the climate control settings are buried within the touchscreen, with no physical buttons to make things easier, although the voice control works reasonably well, which mitigates the problem.

The steering wheel is bold and almost hexagonal - a trademark of modern Peugeots - with a flat bottom and top. It has buttons to toggle the adaptive cruise control and steering wheel paddles for regenerative braking. Its buttons and their surrounds are bathed in piano black, which also features around the air vents.

There is no gear lever; instead, a rocker switch controls gear selection and the chosen driving mode (Eco, Normal, and Sport). Incidentally, each mode features its own dedicated background colour on the dashboard backlighting.

Our Allure test car lacked the handy head-up display, only included in the GT trim.

Practicality & Boot Space

While the thick grey fabric's cocooning effect might make some feel a little claustrophobic, the cabin is a very nice place with comfy seats.

However, one issue with modern Peugeots is the awkward shape of the steering wheel, which is designed to be held in one's lap rather than reached out towards.

The panoramic i-Cockpit is now positioned higher up, so the flat top of the wheel doesn’t obstruct your view of it. But if you’re relatively short, this might obstruct your view of the road.

The wheel position isn’t for everyone, so it’s worth taking a test drive, although we got used to it quite quickly.

Finding a fitting driving position is easy, and there’s plenty of legroom and headroom in the front. However, the high centre console and protruding door fabrics might make those with broad shoulders feel shortchanged on wiggle room.

The rear is good, too, with a generous helping of legroom and headroom; the latter helped by the slope in the roofline being positioned quite far back.

There is less space than in some of the E-3008's key challengers, such as the Skoda Enyaq.

The front features a couple of cupholders in the centre console, a large cubby, and some USB ports. In the back, there are air vents, more USB ports, and two additional cupholders. However, the cupholders are unusable if the middle seat is occupied, as they're in the seat back, which folds down as an armrest.

The boot space measures 548 litres and expands to 1,574 litres with the rear seats folded down in a convenient, versatile 40/20/40 split.

You get slightly more space in the GT, which has 588-litres, expanding to 1,663-litres.

That’s reasonably big, but several rivals comfortably beat its capacity, especially the Tesla Model Y (850 litres expanding to 2,158 litres). The wide, flat floor, which is adjustable, and some underfloor storage make the space very usable.

If you want to tow a caravan, the E-3008 can pull up to 1,250kg braked.

Safety

The all-new Peugeot E-3008 has yet to be tested by Euro NCAP, although we expect this to happen soon.

The predecessor 3008 was tested in 2016 and earned a five-star rating, scoring 86 per cent for adults, 85 per cent for children and 58 per cent for safety assists.

However, only two of the last seven Peugeots tested have scored five stars, with most earning a four-star rating, even though many have higher adult, child and safety assist scores than the old 3008.

The new model's safety equipment includes advanced emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, and collision warning, plus a rear-view camera and rear parking sensors.

The GT trim also gets front parking sensors and adaptive cruise control with ‘stop and go' functionality, meaning the car will move itself along and stop automatically in queues.

The 360 Vision and Drive Assist Pack’ is an optional extra, adding blind spot detection via four external cameras, high beam assist, and rear cross-traffic alert.

The Allure trim also has a heated steering wheel and adaptive cruise control (both are standard on the GT), although the GT model also vaunts Highway Assist 2.0 with lane-centring technology.

The Advanced Grip Control pack offers driving modes for various road conditions, including sand, snow, and mud, and provides hill descent control.

Options

In addition to the optional safety packs we mentioned above, the E-3008 is available in blue as the default colour, as well as white, dark grey, grey-blue, light grey, and black.

You can upgrade to black Nappa leather, which features heated seats, pneumatic lumbar adjustment, and even powered cushion angle adjustment.

There is also a retractable towbar and a panoramic openable sunroof.

Oh, and there’s the heat pump we mentioned earlier, although it’s disappointing that it’s not included as standard in the UK market, given we constantly moan about the weather.

Rival Cars

There is no shortage of competitors for your money.

The Skoda Enyaq, Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Renault Scenic are all adversaries which offer more cabin space, especially for those in the rear.

The Ioniq 5, especially, is truly excellent in just about every category.

Tesla is renowned for being expensive, but the entry-level Model Y is cheaper than the Peugeot.

There is also the impressive Nissan Ariya and the Volkswagen ID.5.

Those leasing at the higher end of the market will want to consider the BMW iX1 and Audi Q4 e-tron.

Verdict & Next Steps

Overall, the Peugeot E-3008 is transformed from its predecessor. It offers personality-filled looks, a strikingly nice interior, and a heavily upgraded infotainment system that looks lovely and blends seamlessly into the giant 21-inch wraparound screen.

The E-3008 is economical, practical, and has decent range - and there's more to come with the larger battery, all-wheel drive and various power options next year.

The current model's performance could be better, but the variants launching in 2025 will address that.

The handling is reasonably good given the Peugeot’s weight, although this compromises the ride comfort somewhat, and it can feel unsettled. But for that, this is an excellent car to lease.

Where to next?

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**Score based on Select’s unique meta score analysis, taking into account the UK’s top leading independent car website reviews of the Peugeot E-3008.

**Correct as of 28/05/2024. Based on 9 months initial payment, 5,000 miles annually, over a 24 month lease. Initial payment equivalent to 9 monthly payments, or £3,617.91 (Plus admin fee) Ts and Cs apply. Credit is subject to status.