O U R CA RS F E AT U R E D T H I S W E E K
ALFA ROMEO STELVIO QV
DACIA DUSTER
FORD PUMA ST
HONDA HR-V
McLAREN GT
PEUGEOT 508 PSE
PEUGEOT 508 PSE Our PSE saloon offered so much on paper as a PHEV with 355bhp, 4WD and 138.9mpg potential. What was the reality? FINAL REPORT
MILEAGE 9508
WHY WE R AN IT To see whether Peugeot’s new sporting saloon can hold its own on luxury and performance in this competitive space
ust 53 Peugeot 508 PSEs were sold in the UK last year: it’s no wonder I’ve not spotted any others on the road. Still, as I wrote recently, Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson assured me that the maker achieved its goal of 2000 PSE sales worldwide. Which raises the question: why have the car at all? There’s Peugeot’s official answer: that the model provides a link between road cars and its endurance hypercar, with the same team working on both.
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62 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 13 APRIL 2022
That makes sense, given Peugeot’s investment in motorsport. There’s also the brand’s viability in the business car space. If you don’t have, at the very least, a plug-in hybrid these days, you’ve no chance. That’s certainly how Peugeot has positioned the 508 PSE in the UK: a car perfect for business, with the added bonus of performance. Perhaps, too, the PSE is easier to justify because it has a plug-in hybrid sibling in the DS 9 E-Tense and plenty of shared parts across the Stellantis empire. And all of this, one hopes, is a stepping stone to fully electric performance cars, where ‘PSE’ becomes the new ‘GTI’ and modular electric set-ups and decreasing costs mean that Peugeot (and all car
Burgess enjoyed it on B-roads and found long hauls comfortable makers) no longer have to scrimp and save and ditch all the fun cars. What has the 508 PSE been like to live with, then? Ultimately, very pleasing. No major hiccups, comfortable, practical, able. Most markedly, it has garnered a lot of attention. In car parks, time and time again, I’ve spotted strangers walking past and taking a close look and muttering: “That’s a good-looking car.” In many cases, that’s followed by an admission of not knowing what the car is. Peugeot clearly has some brand building to do there, but the PSE been universally liked in my experience. This is a ‘neo-performance’ model, as Peugeot likes to call it,
achieving 0-62mph in a fun 5.2sec from 355bhp and 384lb ft from its 1.6-litre petrol engine paired with two electric motors. It’s not a true performance model, which is why it couldn’t compete with the dynamism of others lined up at last year’s Britain’s Best Driver’s Car shootout – but at least it cut the mustard well enough to be a contender, plus it was up against the likes of the Porsche 911 GT3 and Ariel Atom. I am not the kind of driver who needs full-blooded performance, but I still appreciate sharp steering and a fun turn-in on an empty country road, so in many ways the 508 PSE and I are well suited. I know some
