Peugeot 508 PSE (2021) review Car News

It has been more than half a decade since Peugeot, one of the big players in the emerging affordable performance car scene of the 1980s and 1990s, introduced its latest hot sedan: the 308 GTi.

And how much the market context in which cars of this genre operate has changed during this period. Europe is now well on its path to electrify new cars “ towards zero ”, and carbon-based taxes on higher-emitting performance cars are skyrocketing – notably in France, the main domestic market. from Peugeot.

Considering all this, the company had to think innovative and bold in order to maintain its position as a key player in the real world driving car market. And for several years now – while some of its main competitors have continued as they were, avoiding the elephant in the room, or simply concluding that affordable electrified performance cars cannot be viable or cannot be. very fun – Peugeot has experimented, innovated and dared to believe.

By 2015, the year the 308 GTi was introduced, it had developed the nearly 500 horsepower 308 Hybrid R prototype to a level high enough to allow journalists to drive it. And while a few turbulent years of market conditions have since put this car’s production chances to work, it just kicked off this week’s test subject – the 508 Peugeot Sport Engineered – with which, he says, its performance engineering department takes a step forward with both. feet in a new electrified era.

Technical specifications

Tested model: 508 PSE Hybrid4 SW

Price: £ 55,795

Tested price: £ 55,795

Engine: 4-cylinder in-line, 1598 cc, turbocharged, petrol

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Transmission layout: front engine, all-wheel drive

Model tested

508 PSE Hybrid4 SW

See all specs and rivals

Engine

4 cylinders in line, 1598 cc, turbocharged, petrol

Transmission

8-speed automatic

Transmission layout

Front engine, all-wheel drive

The 508 PSE is the most powerful production road car Peugeot has ever built and one of the most technically daring. It combines a four-cylinder gasoline engine with a powerful electric motor for each axle; and it also has a drive battery large enough to power these motors with the current they demand during heavy performance driving, and to allow it to run on electricity only as a rechargeable hybrid at tax savings.