Peugeot e-2008 range, battery & charging

The Peugeot e-2008 has a decent driving range, but falls short of what alternatives like the Kia Niro EV and Hyundai Kona Electric can manage. Charging speeds of up to 100kW also mean it can take advantage of the more powerful chargers that have become common across the UK.

It’s worth noting that every electric-car battery isolates a number of cells from use to improve the battery's performance and longevity. So, while the e-2008 has a 50kWh total capacity, its usable battery capacity is in fact 46.2kWh. Still, following some upgrades introduced in late 2021, Peugeot claims that’s good enough for 214 miles on a charge – up from 206.

Peugeot offers an app that allows you to control and check the state of charging, as well as pre-set the cabin temperature so the car has warmed up or cooled down in advance of departure. There are few things more smug-inducing than stepping into a car that has de-iced itself and warmed up while your neighbour gets the ice-scraper out.

Peugeot e-2008 range

Following some technical tweaks in November 2021, the Peugeot’s official claimed driving range tops out at 214 miles, depending on things like specification and wheel size. It's worth noting that some of the changes required to meet this revised figure include new hardware – so older e-2008 models are restricted to the previous 206-mile maximum.

Some of that hardware includes a new set of efficiency-focused tyres, an upgraded heat pump and a new humidity sensor, while Peugeot has also tweaked the motor so it doesn’t spin so fast at motorway speeds. All these minor tweaks add up to a useful, if not groundbreaking, improvement.

We drove the updated e-2008 on a hot day, and the digital display estimated a range of roughly 180 miles. That’s not far off Peugeot’s claims, but you’ll use more energy with the air con on full blast.

It’s a little difficult to tell how much difference the changes have made. During a previous drive in the pre-update e-2008 in mild weather on mostly rural roads, we saw efficiency of around four miles per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which also suggested a real-world range of around 180 miles, even on the open road. It’d be reasonable to expect 130-140 miles in colder weather, even with some motorway miles thrown into the mix.

Charging time

The e-2008 will charge fully from a 7kW home wallbox in around seven hours and 15 minutes. If you need a quick top-up to keep going on the motorway, it can add 100 miles of range in 20 minutes, or get to 80% full in half an hour courtesy of its 100kW charging capacity.

A Type 2 charging cable is provided with the e-2008, allowing you to plug into most AC charging stations as well, but you pay extra for a three-pin cable to plug into a standard domestic socket, which will take over 22 hours to deliver a full charge.

The Peugeot’s rapid charging is done using the standard CCS socket on the car’s flank, where you’d expect the fuel filler to be on a conventional car. You don’t need to worry about a cable for rapid charging, as any DC charger (that is, every charger of 50kW or higher) has the cable tethered to the charging station itself.