Peugeot 208: your guided tour
DESIGn secrets and video walkaround of electric peugeot 208
Words: Guy Bird | Images: John Wycherley
• Full design story of Peugeot’s new e-208
• ‘Sexy’ electric city car’s design secrets
• VIDEO: watch our e-208 walkaround
‘We wanted to create the sexiest hatchback in the purest way,’ says Gilles Vidal in his charming, French-accented English. And in the new 208, Peugeot’s design team have produced a supermini with sporty proportions and distinctive exterior detailing, while inside you’ll experience cabin quality and high-tech holographic screens you might not find in a car twice the price.
The entry-level petrol 208 costs from £15,575, while the electric 208 is priced from £26,725. They’re cars we’re very familiar with, having driven the electric, diesel and petrol from Land’s End to Edinburgh in an unusual relay: click here to read our road trips.
Under the skin is a lightweight chassis bristling with advanced technology, propelled by efficient combustion engines as well as the all-electric version pictured. It’s a combination that landed 2020’s Car of the Year award from a jury of European motoring journalists, plus the Best Small Car title from company car magazine Fleet News. To find out more about the 208’s winning formula, we asked Vidal – design director on the 208 project – to talk us through its design and innovations.
208 is the most attractive Peugeot supermini since the 205
Strong proportions
Many car designers talk about the importance of ‘proportions’ or a car having a ‘good stance’ but what do they actually mean? Like the skeleton of a healthy human standing up straight, the outline of a car with good proportions normally contributes to the car looking strong, safe and sporty. In side-view in particular the new 208 is longer, lower and wider than the previous model, the base of the windscreen is pushed back, there’s more of a shoulder to the bodywork below the side windows and its derrière features a more curvaeous and defined rump. Which appeals to most humans. And, as Vidal adds: ‘We wanted big wheels in the corners, “muscle” in the body and a more upright windscreen to give the car some “nose”.’
Muscular grille
The 208’s intricately-detailed front face really rewards close inspection. Get up in its grille and you’ll notice that certain regularly spaced parts are painted the same colour as the bodywork – metallic blue on this e-208 – and are crucially horizontal in shape. This orientation helps visually make the 208 appear wider, stronger and more solid, which for a small car is a reassuring attribute. On the electric version the lion emblem changes colour depending on how the light catches it too. If you want to get technical the term is ‘dichroic’. If you don’t, it still looks great.
Trims and tricks
There are five trim levels on the 208 – Active Premium, Allure, Allure Premium, GT and GT Premium. The lower specifications’ body-coloured arches switch to black gloss on the GT and GT Premium cars. They’re designed to reduce the width of the coloured section between the top of the front wheelarch and the bonnet surface to make the body side appear slimmer. Active Premium cars get 16-inch alloys; this e-208 runs on 17-inch diamond cut two-tone rims.
Bold face, family resemblance
The 208’s bold face follows the look of the 508 executive car’s, with its triple white LED lights underscored by a fang and nudging up against that distinctive grille.
While the design adheres to Peugeot’s philosophy of putting a chrome 208 badge on the bonnet and some sparkly accents, the finish is otherwise banished for being too traditional. ‘We’re getting rid of [excessive] chrome actually,’ explains Gilles Vidal. ‘We want the car to be attractive and animated by the sculpture of the body. And it has a lot.’
VIDEO: watch 208 electric vs petrol vs diesel track showdown
Déjà vu
That rear pillar is hugely influenced by the Peugeot 205’s design, and that recess harbouring the ‘e’ is reminiscent of the GTi lozenge that adorned the legendary hot hatch (and went a long way to crowning the 205 CAR magazine’s Car of the ’80s). What sits below is much more contemporary – the fast charging port. It can replenish the e-208 from zero range to 80 per cent of its 217 miles in just 30 minutes, when attached to a 100kW Direct Current ultrarapid public charger.
DIALS A WORK OF ARTHOUSE
Despite its small size and price point the 208 also features Peugeot’s acclaimed i-Cockpit technology with its three-dimensional driver display where different layers appear to float in front of others, according to their priority. Stunning to behold and use, the hologram technology has been tested and found to reduce eye and brain fatigue, as it requires less refocusing from the road ahead to the digital screen inside. Bonus fact: the guy who did the graphics on the i-Cockpit brought his screen skills from the film industry where he previously worked with acclaimed arthouse director Luc Besson.
Small car, big quality
The quality of the 208’s interior has really benefited from its bigger siblings.
‘We took all the quality of the 3008 and 508 into the 208 version,’ says interior designer Eric Dejou. ‘The carbonfibre effect on the dashboard is the same as on the 508. We chose to bring life and fun into the interior with accents of colour and on the stitching. The idea is to offer new experiences even for the base model, to surprise.’ It’s not just aesthetics either.
There’s function too. A stand-out cabin detail is the fold-down flap under the piano-key switches in the centre console which can house a smart phone in several different ways while it charges – either inductively or via two charging points – and has an angled lip to display its screen towards the occupants if required too. One of many details that give the small 208 its big car feel.
PRIZE DRAW: win a road trip to a boutique hotel – and a Peugeot to travel there in