There’s no denying 2023 is an exciting year for Peugeot New Zealand. The brand has launched its hero car for the next well, no one knows how long, in the new 308 which has not only seen global accolades, it has also been hybridised.
The 308 is a fantastic car. So good in fact, the previous statement requires no qualification, which is just as well, given this report is about the car which followed the PureTech powered Peugeot – the 308 GT Hybrid.
The critical point of difference is clearly the ‘HybridTech’ which comprises a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine delivering 132kW of power and 250Nm of torque, a 13.2kWh battery – located under the rear seat – a front axle mounted electric motor producing 81kW and a new electrically agreeable eight-speed automatic gearbox.
The ‘electrically agreeable’ gearbox comes with a new braking function which is somewhat critical to the efficient operation of a plug-in hybrid. In addition to Park, Drive, Neutral and Reverse, drivers can select Brake mode, which facilitates increased regenerative braking capacity.
This captures brake energy and allows it to be fed back to the battery, though only incrementally – it helps. For the driver, this system allows the vehicle to slow without use of the car’s brakes. Simply lift off the accelerator and the car will slow.
If you drive the battery to the point where charging at a plug – as opposed to feeding the battery through excessive braking or descending hills – a standard 8-amp / 220-volt socket will recharge your 308 Hybrid in about seven hours. With a 7.4kWh Wall Box, that time reduces to a little over three hours.
As we have come to expect of plug-in hybrids, the Peugeot 308 GT PHEV is capable of limited operation on purely electrical energy. It can complete 61km on zero fuel use and zero emission.
For the times when the hybrid is operating – with the petrol engine doing its thing every once and a while – the 308 Hybrid emits a scant 5gm/km of CO2 and can run with a claimed one litre per 100km fuel efficiency.
You don’t become an award-winner by being less than you should be and as such, the 308 GT PHEV has a full complement of safety systems on board, the most significant being a new high-definition rear view camera, long range blind spot monitoring, lane keeping and road edge assist, as well as stop and go sophistication for the adaptive cruise control.
All of these safety features are stepping-stones towards autonomous motoring, however, the driving dynamics imbued in the 308 are almost a counterpoint to this, rewarding the driver with the joie de vie which a brilliantly balanced hatchback can provide.
The technical excellence of the 308 Hybrid is perhaps most graphically demonstrated with the i-cockpit concept which Peugeot introduced 10 years ago and has been steadily refining as technology advances.
Today, the i-Cockpit represents the best Peugeot has in terms of its functionality and design elegance.
With the 308 Hybrid’s compact multi-functional and heated steering wheel, the eye level instrument display and the driver-focused 10” capacitive touchscreen making up the i-Cockpit essentials, all Peugeot needed to do was add a little je ne sais quoi to give it the coup de grace and voila!
Ok, enough with the student’s primer to French, but the design of the i-Cockpit needed only a little refinement – which for me anyway, came in the form of a series of toggle switches – to complete the cabin.
From the awards the 308 has already attracted, it would appear my tastes agree with many others.
Practically speaking, the 308’s hatchback design is not only a breath of fresh air in the SUV-choked automotive atmosphere, it is immensely useful, with comfortable five seat occupancy and 361 litres of cargo space, so – a very pleasant return to the pragmatic fleet vehicles of days gone by, but with French flair to cruise into the future.
