Peugeot 508 Hybrid Review

Range

The official range of 32 – 39 miles varies depending on wheel size and spec level of the 508 – stick with the 17-inch wheels of our favoured Allure trim and you’ll be getting the longer range. However, you’ll struggle to get close to that in real world driving. Even in warm weather and at slower speeds in town, the 508 Hybrid will do around 30 to 35 miles on pure electric running, while cold weather and motorway speeds will both see the range drop more quickly to around 25 miles or less. 

You can hold the battery charge for later in the journey in Peugeot, as in most PHEVs. It’s a useful function as in longer journeys it makes more sense to use the petrol engine on the motorway, since that’s where petrol is at its most frugal, while the electric motor is at its most efficient in town.  

Battery

The Peugeot’s 11.8kWh battery is hidden underneath the boot floor, which does mean that you can’t have a spare tyre as there’s no room – but it also means there’s no compromise to passenger space. It’s covered by an eight year, 100.000 mile warranty that also protects against loss of performance, so Peugeot will refurbish or replace the battery if the car’s range drops below 70% of what it was when new.  

Charging 

You plug the 508 in via a flap in the flank of the car, on the opposite side to where the fuel filler is. The Type 2 socket and standard Mode 3 cable provided makes the car compatible with the vast majority of chargers and will also allow you to plug into a home or office wallbox. You will have to pay a couple of hundred pounds for a cable to plug into a three-pin domestic socket, though, which is a shame as it’s useful to be able to plug the car in when you’re staying with friends or family, even if we agree with Peugeot that it’s better to use a dedicated car charger for routine charging. 

Fork out for that cable and use it to plug the 508 into a normal socket at home, and you’ll get a full charge in around six to seven hours. A dedicated car charger will do the same in around three hours at the 508’s peak charging rate of 3.6kW. You can pay extra to up that peak charging rate to 7.4kW, which will see your charge time drop to under two hours.

A free phone app lets you remotely check what the charging status of the car is, set charging times and more. You can also set timed charging hours via the car’s screen in order to make the most of off-peak charging tariffs.