After showing off the Peugeot 308 R Hybrid concept car last year, it seems that the hottest 308 ever is finally going into production, and will have some of the segment stalwarts set firmly in its crosshairs.
The 308 ‘R’ is expected to sit as Peugeot’s most powerful petrol model, though it isn’t a petrol-only model. With power on the 308 R Hybrid concept at 367kW and 730Nm from the 1.6-litre petrol and dual electric motor combo, it shamed the Ford Focus RS in the century sprint, completing it in just 4.0 seconds, while the Ford claims 4.7 seconds.
Jean-Philippe Imparato, the CEO of Peugeot said that he would “love to launch something even faster” than the existing 308 GTi. When quizzed by Autocar if there was space for a model to slot above the existing hot 308, he said there was. “There is space for something. I don’t have a solution, but I am on it.”
“We are very involved in competition sport, like Dakar, and we don’t want to lose this space with our cars. I don’t think we will develop an RCZ replacement. on each level of our range, we will have something impressive in performance. Do we work on a new RCZ, or on the fact that the next 308 will be a beast?”
Although it could be mulled that the 308 R will be an exclusively-petrol offering, with the strong feedback that the 308 R Hybrid concept received at last years’ Shanghai motor show, it’s likely that we’ll see a version of the concept powertrain that was introduced with it. The concept car employed a six-speed automated manual transmission, though it’s not clear if that transmission will make it into production.
The new 308 R’s introduction is mostly down to a new ‘Push to Pass’ strategy that Peugeot is now employing, with a target set to be “the best high-end generalist brand,” rivalling the kind of image and product lineup of Volkswagen. Impart said that “customers want high-level cars and are ready to pay for them if residual values are solid.” On this, he said that residual values of the new 3008 crossover is increasing by about 8%-17%.
He went on to conclude that the second-generation i-Cockpit interior, which will be made standard across the board, is a key component of Peugeot’s upmarket aspirations.
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