Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 (2011) CAR review

Peugeot Citroen are showing Hybrid4 ideas for 3 years currently - and at last the wait is over. The new Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 is here - and we've driven it. UK sales begin in November 2011.

This is a big automobile on varied counts. it is the 1st series production diesel-electric hybrid on sale. it is the 1st time you or I even have been able to get a PSA Hybrid4 vehicle. And, if Paris is to be believed, it's going to nevertheless revolutionise the method hybrid cars are place along and sold.

Read on for CAR's 1st drive review of the new 2011 Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4.
Peugeot Hybrid4: a history lesson

A quick recap on the PSA hybrid resolution. The French have long championed diesel, and there is been abundant oh la la and gnashing of teeth to be heard within the corridors of Peugeot Citroen HQ because the world switched on to petrol-electric hybrids, several of them fearsomely expensive, bespoke models with knee-high emissions and sky-high worth tags.

PSA, with lots of facilitate from Bosch, has come back up with what it argues may be a abundant easier system: Hybrid4. It takes an existing combustion-engined model - success 3008 - and bolts on a comparatively low powered 27kW electrified rear axle. Clever electronics management the interaction between front engine and rear electrical motor, with not one physical link between the axles.

It means each model in Peugeot Citroen's vary will theoretically be hybridised comparatively cheaply, at a premium of some £2500-£3500 over an everyday cooking petrol or diesel engine. PSA is launching the diesel 1st (because they are French/because of its inherent half-hour mpg benefit), however unleaded hybrids can follow.
Does the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 work well in practice?

First impressions are sensible. This extremely may be a 'normal' hybrid automobile. There are not any glitzy controls to scare you off, no weird-looking body panels. Your nearby neighbours are laborious pushed to inform you are driving a clever-clogs sub-100g/km CO2 automobile. there is simply that niggling doubt over a worth tag of £26,995 that appears at odds with the 3008 Hybrid4's populist roots... Cheaper hybrids can follow, engineers assure us.

Step onboard and where you'd normally notice the 3008's Grip management button may be a hybrid controller, letting you decide between ZEV for full electrical mode (it'll run as a RWD for up to a few miles if the battery is full); Auto (where everything is finished for you); four wheel drive (where each axles are powered for higher traction in slippery conditions); and Sport (where the automated manual six-speed transmission clings onto gears for longer).

Turn the key to begin up and also the silence is golden. Progress is swish, as we tend to regress in Auto mode. Peugeot has tuned the gearbox to use the electrical motor's torque to smoothe off gearchanges and progress is sweeter than in regular 3008's with the jumpy automated manual. Creep forwards and you'll be able to indeed drive in EV mode up to around 30mph before the two.0-litre HDI diesel kicks in. The transitions are swish and there is no kangarooing to talk of.

Don't like a budget plastic paddles, though, and it's laborious to inform that mode you are in because the controller has small lights. however initial driving impressions are sensible.
What regarding at higher speeds?

The 3008 is not any powerhouse; that modest rear electrical motor may be a fifth the ability of a Prius's, remember. however you've that stonking a pair of.0-litre HDI engine, that rows the chunky - 1660kg - 3008 Hybrid4 along terribly nicely.

Regular 3008 traits remain: a lofty driving position for sensible visibility (bar some hefty A-pillars), storage areas galore for family duties, a plump ride, quite agile steering and a rather fiddly parking brake. you will not see a captivating power indicator in a very regular or garden Pug, though. It's additional Rolls-like.

We tested it in 38deg C heat with the air-con blasting away in mainly urban conditions - average speed 23mph - and gobbled diesel at a rate of 49mpg. We'd say that is quite spectacular for an oversized five-seater which will double up as a van. The 3008's loadbay loses around V-day of its area, however you have still got 420 litres, stretching to 1501 if you drop the rear seats.

Just bear in mind you would like to choose the bottom automobile with 16in wheels if you would like the magical 99g/km CO2 figure. At current tax rates, that'd mean you would be exempt from annual road tax and London congestion charge always. however the higher-spec Hybrid4 model we tend to tested had 17s and 104g/km. each digit counts today.
Verdict

We admire the Hybrid4's plug-n-play nature. that you simply will apply this tech to any automobile based mostly on the big or mid-sized PF2 or PF3 platforms within the Peugeot Citroen empire may be a neat engineering trick. it is a clever method of hybridising massive numbers of cars quickly, and a plug-in version with lithium ion batteries and a fourfold increase in ZEV vary is coming back in 2014.

While we tend to could struggle to decision a £27k hybrid cheap, it's obvious PSA has elected to launch the Hybrid4 at the highest of the 3008 vary. Once it percolates right down to smaller engines, we'd wager it will make additional sense to additional consumers.

Posted in: 2011,Cars,Peugeot