Peugeot E-208 GTi Review 2025
Peugeot E-208 GTi At A Glance
It certainly looks the part of a hot hatch halo model. Performance and chassis upgrades are promising. This is a firm that knows how to build fine-handling cars.
Not inexpensive, so it has to deliver to feel worth it. Modest driving range could be a comprise too big for some.
Scour social media platforms and it’s not hard to find naysayers bemoaning electric cars as being dull and ‘appliance-like’, although how many of those commentators are speaking from personal experience — assuming that they’re humans and not bots — is debatable. Yet real driving enthusiasts could soon be celebrating EVs for enabling the resurrection of the hot hatchback, the ranks of which will soon be swollen with the arrival of the Peugeot E-208 GTi.
Revealed on the eve of 2025’s Le Mans 24-hour endurance race, this electric pocket rocket’s appearance comes almost six years after orders opened for the more modestly performing versions of the Peugeot E-208 upon which it’s based. That’s a long time in the making so it’s good to know Peugeot’s done more than simply turn the performance wick up with this new-era hot hatch.
Not that the Peugeot E-208 GTi’s extra urgency is unimportant, of course. In fact, its 280PS output represents a substantial 124PS increase over today’s most powerful E-208, while peak torque’s upped by 85Nm to 345Nm. The result for this 1600kg model? An appropriately brisk 0-62mph time of 5.7 seconds with a top speed sensibly pegged at 112mph to prevent unnecessarily wasting the battery’s energy reserves.
Its 51kWh useable capacity hasn’t been enlarged as part of the E-208’s GTi makeover resulting in a WLTP Combined cycle range claim of 217 miles — all that extra performance representing a 51-mile deduction compared with others in the range fitted with the same battery. Nevertheless, it features a specific cooling system designed to take into account how quickly it may have been driven.
Using a 100kW rapid DC charger the E-208 GTi can be zapped from a 20%-80% state of charge in just under 30 minutes, while Peugeot’s also introduced the ability to limit 7.4kW AC domestic wallbox charges to 80%, helping to maximise battery health. Connected to such a charger the same 20%-80% replenishment requires 4 hours 40 minutes.
Compared with its most obvious and immediate rival, the 220PS and 300Nm editions of the Alpine A290, the Peugeot’s squirt from standstill to 62mph is 0.7 seconds faster, while the Alpine’s able to eke an extra nine miles of driving range from its battery.
Amplified performance is all well and good on paper but for the E-208 GTi to be truly enjoyable it needs to handle exquisitely — even more so given how much the company references its legendary Peugeot 205 GTI in relation to its electric descendent, a car which for many defined the peak 1980s hot hatch movement. Promising omens are manifested by Peugeot’s rundown of the new GTi’s chassis modifications.
Within the E-208 GTi’s single-speed automatic transmission is a limited slip differential, a technology that helps meter different amounts of drive to each front wheel depending on traction levels and steering angle, benefiting cornering stability and hopefully quelling tendencies to push wide through bends.
Elsewhere Peugeot’s widened the E-208 GTi’s front and rear tracks — the side-to-side distance between the wheels — by 56mm and 27mm respectively, a change that should help promote greater handling stability. Complementing those changes, the car’s been hunkered-down by lopping 30mm from the ride height as well as fitting GTi-specific suspension components.
Sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres promise to enable the E-208 GTi to transmit its performance to the road effectively while the Peugeot’s stopping credentials are enhanced by substantial 355mm front brake discs.
Integral to the appeal of those hot hatch forebears were their unashamedly attention-seeking visual overhauls — here Peugeot’s really gone to town harking back to that with the E-208 GTi to the extent that it feels wrong looking at its photos without having synth-heavy Eighties pop playing in the background.
Red accents dominated the Peugeot 205 GTI 40 years ago and they do so again here, with scarlet highlights around the E-208 GTi’s grille and Peugeot logos, within the headlights, crowning the wheelarches, enveloping the front brake callipers and underlining the rear spoiler. It continues inside with red stitching and accents to the steering wheel, dashboard and its chunkily bolstered front sports seats. The carpets and seatbelts? Also red.
Further 205 reverence comes in the shape of the E-208 GTi’s 18-inch alloy wheels which mimic the style of the earlier model’s sought-after Speedline rims, complete with a subtle reworking of Peugeot’s contemporaneous GTI logo.
And no, that’s not a typo — until 1999’s Peugeot 206 GTi was introduced the firm used a capital ‘I’ rather than a lower case one. What’s curious here is that while capped-up GTI badges feature on and in this new EV, the E-208 is referred to as GTi. Given both the ‘I’ and ‘i’ were initialisms for ‘injection’ that only serves to generate more questions about a car that isn’t fitted with a combustion engine anyway. The Porsche Taycan Turbo's looking for volunteers to hold its pilsner…
So aside from the Alpine A290 what else can the Peugeot E-208 GTi consider as a rival? Given that the pickings right now are on the thin side, some lateral thinking’s required when shopping for alternatives, two of which come in the form of compact SUVs from elsewhere within Stellantis — using the same 280PS drive system and underpinnings as the Peugeot are both the Abarth 600e Scorpionissima and the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica Veloce.
More conventionally shaped hot hatchbacks will come along before too long, though. Don’t be surprised if the E-208 GTi’s motor also makes an appearance in a GSe-badged Vauxhall Corsa Electric before too long, while the forthcoming Volkswagen ID.2 will almost certainly be sold in GTI guise. What's the betting that the odds are shortening on a Hyundai Inster N waiting in the wings?
Pricing for the Peugeot E-208 GTi won’t be revealed for several weeks but we expect it to be in the ballpark of £38,000 with the first cars reaching customers before the end of 2025.
Keep this page bookmarked further news on this important new model and to read our forthcoming full and comprehensive Peugeot E-208 GTi review in the months ahead.
