Peugeot e-208 long-term test: report 4

The car Peugeot e-208 GT 51kWh Run by James Tute, Content Editor

Why it's here To see if Peugeot’s small electric car is agile enough for city driving while remaining practical for longer trips to the Shires

Needs to Be well-suited to rush-hour traffic and comfy on motorway drives, with enough range for hassle-free long journeys

Mileage 5220 List price £32,900 Target Price £32,900 Price as tested £34,760 Official range 248 miles Test range 187 miles

24 February 2025 – Can Eco eke out the e-208’s range?

I’ve had a few (non-car) stereos from a well-known electronics brand over the years, and they’ve all had a little red Bass Boost button.

You might think activating that exciting-sounding feature would make the room throb like a Berlin nightclub, but in my experience it’s actually a corrective to the slightly weedy default sound.

Likewise, most electric cars – including my Peugeot e-208 – give you three driving modes to play with: Eco, Normal and Sport.

If you want maximum bass, sorry, pace, you’ll need to switch from the default Normal mode up to the sporty setting. And if you have a long journey ahead and want to delay having to stop to charge up as long as possible, you’ll want to flick to Eco.

Well, that’s the theory – and whenever I’ve used the switch between the e-208’s front seats to change mode, I have indeed noticed a slight variation in performance as the available power rises or falls.

But would Eco really prove effective at eking out the charge in the 51kWh battery and extending the range? And if so, by how much? Fifty miles? Ten? A few metres?

I decided to get out my lab coat and clipboard and do a semi-scientific experiment on a there-and-back journey to a What Car? photoshoot.

I drove the 40 miles there in Eco mode and the same distance back in Normal mode, leaving all other settings on the car unchanged. So I left the regenerative braking in the default setting, kept the stereo at the same volume and didn’t touch the air-con controls.

The driving conditions were similar and the journey took about two hours in each direction, but the energy efficiency recorded was quite dramatically different.

In one direction, the figure was 3.8kWh, which translates to 194 miles of range from the e-208’s battery. In the other, I got 4.2kWh – or 214 miles.

So… case closed, Eco mode is better. Er, well no, actually – I saw the better efficiency figure in Normal mode. It seems that the difference in outside temperature (3-4C for the Eco trip against 4-7C the other way) far outweighed any benefits Eco mode might bring.

In future when I’m planning a long journey, I think I’ll forget the e-208’s driving modes and check the weather forecast instead…

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