Peugeot e-308 SW long-term test: report 2

The car Peugeot e-308 SW GT Run by Mark Pearson, used cars editor

Why it’s here To see if an electric estate car can cut it against a small number of similar rivals and a plethora of similarly powered SUVs 

Needs to It’ll need to dispatch commuting, work and family life without any range anxiety issues and cope with a wide variety of everyday duties

Miles covered 2106 Price £43,320 Target price £38,973 Price as tested £44,070 Official range 254 miles Test range 201 miles 

9 August 2024 – Home on the (fast disappearing) range 

Technology is a wonderful thing. In days gone by, the concept of being able to change how your car behaves on the fly would be an alien one, but my Peugeot e-308 SW has three driving modes to choose from – Eco, Normal and Sport – which give the car a different flavour, and these can be accessed via a button by the gearlever.

Normal is the default, and this limits the car’s power to a modest 134bhp. Engage Sport and all 154 horses are released, which feels more gratifying but also adds a bit of extra heft to the steering, which it doesn’t really need. Eco mode, meanwhile, slackens off the responses to aid efficiency, but frankly feels like you’ve tethered an ocean liner to the car’s rear end. I stick with Normal most of the time – as, I suspect, will most buyers.

I am, though, like Father William in the famous Lewis Carroll poem, a little old, so all this modern technology can still catch me out. I’ve never been very sure when USB-C inputs became a thing – I still believe my trusty iPhone 8 Plus to be a relatively new device – but my phone’s Lightning charging cable ends in a USB-A end, sufficient to go into an Apple plug and be charged up at home.

This seemed okay in most cars until about a year ago when every car I tried seemed to have changed overnight to include only the newer USB-C ports. So because my e-308 doesn’t have wireless phone charging, I had to go out and buy a USB-C Lightning cable, which now means I need never fear my phone running out of charge. 

The car running out of charge, mark you, is another story. My only real concern with my e-308 SW so far would be that the indicated range can fall at an occasionally disarming rate.

Fully charging my car to 100% usually shows it indicating 262 miles of range. However, a recent 109-mile return journey to Kent and back on a mild day involving much motorway work and some A-road and town action at either end saw its indicated range drop by 168 miles to just 94 miles.

This left it with under 50% left in its proverbial tank, which for someone trying to avoid using public electric car chargers is potentially worrying. This points to a real range of around 200 miles – although in fairness that's roughly at the bottom end of what I had been expecting.

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