Facelifted Peugeot E-208 gives you 29 miles extra range for £400

The facelifted Peugeot E-208 supermini is now on sale, with prices starting from just over £32,000 – roughly £400 more than before. Already the best-selling small electric car in Europe, the updated version of the E-208 gets an even sharper design than before as well as a larger battery pack for an even greater electric range.

At launch, buyers of the BYD Dolphin and Ora Funky Cat rival have a choice of four trim levels: Active, Allure GT and the limited-run E-Style. The line-up kicks off with the Peugeot E-208 Active which starts from £32,400 and, like the majority of the line-up, gets a new 10-inch touchscreen featuring wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Also standard are LED lights front and rear, automatic climate control and rear parking sensors.

Available until January 2024, the Peugeot E-208 E-Style starts from just £200 more and adds part-leatherette seats, front parking sensors, diamond-cut alloys and tinted rear windows. There are drawbacks, however; this gets the old 50kWh battery setup, resulting in a shorter range of 224 miles. It also retains the pre-facelift car’s seven-inch touchscreen unit, although this does at least have sat nav built in.

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Priced from £34,050 Allure picks up from where the E-Style model left off, but once again gets the latest 10-inch central screen, as well as a fully-digital instrument cluster (Active and E-Style cars get analogue dials with a small 3.5-inch display). 

Finally, the top-spec GT variant ups the ante with larger 17-inch wheels, gloss black exterior accents, part-leather sports seats with green stitching, a wireless smartphone charger, ambient lighting, plus full-LED headlights and ‘dynamic’ pulsing rear indicators.

Sharing its e-CMP underpinnings with the newly-facelifted Vauxhall Corsa Electric, the 2023 Peugeot E-208 gets a larger 54kWh battery to replace the old 50kWh unit. This, Peugeot says, bumps range up to a maximum of 254 miles on the WLTP test cycle – 29 miles more than the old car.

Power also sees an increase thanks to a more-powerful 154bhp electric motor (up from 134bhp). However, due to the extra weight of the battery, the new car is actually 0.1 seconds slower than the old model; the updated Peugeot E-2008 is also slower than the pre-facelift car, despite getting the same boost in power.

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As before, the Peugeot E-208’s maximum rapid charging rate stands at 100kW; if you can find a compatible public charger, Peugeot claims you can top-up its electric supermini from 20-80% in “less than 25 minutes”.

Elsewhere, perhaps the most recognisable change for the E-208’s mid-life facelift is its restyled front end; the French maker’s smallest EV now gets a body-coloured grille – in all models, bar the base Active – as well as redesigned ‘lion’s claw’ LED running lights.

There’s redesigned lighting at the rear, too, while there’s also two new colours to choose from: Agueda Yellow (pictured) and Selenium Grey. New alloy wheel designs range from 16-17 inches in diameter, plus Peugeot’s redesigned emblem now takes pride of place on not only the front and rear of the car, but on the steering wheel inside, too.

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Speaking of the facelifted Peugeot E-208’s interior, the French electric hatchback retains its futuristic i-Cockpit layout, however, new models now get a toggle switch-style gearlever, as well as refreshed upholstery. As mentioned, a 10-inch touchscreen is now standard on all models, with top models getting digital dials with updated graphics.

Other incremental improvements include new USB-C ports to replace the now-outdated standard USB sockets. A more-powerful wireless charging pad can be fully utilised by the latest smartphones for faster charging, while a Parking Pack can be added to Allure and GT cars for £300 and £200 respectively, adding an upgraded HD reversing camera, plus blind spot monitoring.