New Peugeot 308 facelift trades muscle for miles, and light-up badges

The Peugeot 308 has been updated with a sleek new face, bold light-up nose and series of headline tech changes including greater range for the electric version, as the maker looks to keep its venerable hatchback and SW estate relevant in an increasingly SUV-dominated market.

The most obvious change is the illuminated badge, with the French brand joining the likes of Vauxhall and Volkswagen by lighting up the Peugeot emblem on the top-spec 308 models for the first time. It forms part of a heavy revision of the 308’s front end.

The previous model’s gaping grille is toned down into a sharper and more aggressive look by adding a whole raft of body-coloured inserts. The new so-called ‘three-claw’ daytime running light signature replaces the vertical bar of the outgoing car, and on the top-spec GT and new GT Premium trims it gets short vertical lighting running the whole way across the bonnet to flank the illuminated logo. 

The main headlamps are nestled away beneath the daytime running lights, and Peugeot has tried to make the car look wider via the sculpted bumpers and large air vent that helps efficiency by aiding air flow into the wheelarches.

“This is a generational change and with the new lighting signature moves the car into a more electrified era,” the 308’s design project manager Michael Trouve told Auto Express at a reveal event ahead of the car’s official unveiling. “The headlamps hidden into the front face are almost invisible and give attention to the three-claw gaze area.”

The only major design change beyond the nose is that all cars now get the 3D three-claw rear lights previously only fitted to the top-spec GT, and there are also new, different, blue colours for the hatch and SW estate models – Lagoa Blue and Ingaro Blue, respectively. 

Cabin changes extend to new seat fabrics and updated graphics for the instrument cluster, while the new top-end GT Premium specification adds Alcantara heated massage seats, a 360-degree camera, plus the Driver Assist Plus safety pack and an alarm. 

But Peugeot has also been working beneath the surface, particularly on the electric E-308. Technical tweaks to the existing battery system have liberated a little extra range – another 25 miles on the hatchback and 20 miles on the SW estate, taking range figures up to 281 miles  and 276 miles, respectively. For comparison, the most affordable Volkswagen ID.3 will do 241 miles on a charge, while top-spec models manage a claimed 371 miles on a charge. Unfortunately there’s no change to the 308’s charging rate, which still sits at a pretty modest 100kW maximum; most rivals offer at least 120kW.

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Peugeot has caught up with pretty much every electric car maker by finally offering adjustable brake regeneration on its EV, something that we’d expect to filter across the brand and its Stellantis-owned siblings, including Vauxhall and Citroen, as those electric cars are updated. Gone is the little ‘B’ button that switched the brake mode on or off, swapped out for three levels of regen controlled by paddles behind the steering wheel. 

One place Peugeot is forging ahead is by deploying Plug & Charge technology. At compatible chargers across Europe, drivers can plug the car in and walk away without having to tap a card or use an app, because the charge point recognises the car and bills the driver accordingly. Brands including the Volkswagen Group, BMW and Kia already have the same tech fitted to their EVs, and Ionity and Shell are among the compatible charging networks, with more likely to follow as it becomes commonplace. 

The other piece of new functionality is Vehicle-to-Load capability, where a dealer accessory lets owners feed electricity from the car to charge other appliances or power mobile lighting, for example. 

But the engineering developments aren’t limited to the electric model, with the plug-in hybrid 308 getting the new 193bhp seven-speed auto system already seen on the new 3008 and 5008 models, rather than the previous 222bhp offered on the old 308. Performance is improved despite the cut in power, with 0.3 seconds shaved off the hatch’s 0-62mph time, taking it to 7.6 seconds. More importantly, the electric range is increased by six miles to 53 miles on battery alone. 

The non-plug-in hybrid petrol powertrain remains, with the 143bhp unit carried over unchanged, and Peugeot is also keeping the 128bhp diesel engine despite the fuel’s continued fall in demand. Insiders point to its popularity with police fleets as the main reason for its retention in the line-up – alongside petrol hybrid, PHEV and full electric for the hatchback and SW estate models. 

Available to order from November and hitting UK roads early next year, pricing is yet to be confirmed, but expected to drop slightly compared to the current car’s starting point of £33,325. The electric version should be eligible for the Government’s £1,500 Electric Car Grant when Peugeot’s application is rubber-stamped, potentially helping it undercut even the outgoing petrol car.

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