Peugeot E-208 GTI review

Prices start at £34,995 before the £1,500 government grant, making it £500 more than its Corsa GSE cousin. Peugeot’s configurator is offering £349 per month over four years with a 6,000 annual mileage limit (and a hefty deposit) as we type. That buys you an almost fully equipped E-208 GTI; this isn’t a device whose best technology is gatekept by options packs. Take note, supercar makers.

If you’re open to spending more you can lay out £500 for the panoramic glass roof and then between £750 and £950 on a colour that isn’t its standard Okenite White. As well as black, grey, silver and the headline, Eighties-tastic red (the priciest hue), there are the bolder options of Miramar Blue and Agueda Yellow. This is a gnarly little hot hatch, folks: let its exterior appearance trumpet that to onlookers.

A diddier Abarth 500e starts comfortably under £30k but only possesses 152bhp. The GTI’s price is otherwise par for the course against its rivals, the Alpine A290, Cupra Raval VZ, Mini John Cooper Works Electric and Vauxhall Corsa GSE rivals all bombilating around the same level while benefiting from varying levels of official government incentive.

Buying a hot hatch because it’s the right thing to do doesn’t tally with the old, rebellious image of these things, but it’s welcome nonetheless.

Worried about the fragility of a French hatch (or, indeed, the stereotypes surrounding such things)? Both the car and its battery are sold with Peugeot Care, an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty.