Two into one
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Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 in France Popular Mechanics - Anthony Doman
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The local launch of the Peugeot 508 sedan (more of that in a separate article) reminded me of my drive of another Peugeot a couple of months ago. The 508 is available in a wagon version with hybrid drivetrain offering all-wheel drive, similar to the setup in the 3008 Hybrid4 I drove in France. Sadly, the slinky-looking 508 Estate won’t be coming to South Africa any time soon – in numbers, anyway.
Recently arrived Peugeot SA boss Francois Harnie repeated the conventional wisdom that this is not wagon country. But he added with a Gallic shrug that there might be merit in bringing in a demonstration model to show off the company’s technology.
(By the way, I told Harnie, my last two cars were station wagons.)
To return that drive of the 3008 Hybrid4. On the way back from the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, I detoured to the west coast of France to drive the car that was billed the world’s first diesel hybrid in production. It uses a turbodiesel to drive the front wheels and an electric motor to drive the rears. In this parallel configuration, the two drivetrains can operate separately or simultaneously – yes, the 3008 Hybrid4 has all-wheel drive ability.
The car’s engine management system controls front-to-rear torque split; at the rear, torque vectoring side-to-side is managed by the stability control system. The turbodiesel develops 300 N.m of torque, and the electric 200 N.m. Effectively combining the two entails some losses, but total torque is still a massive 450 N.m.
CO2 emissions are 99 g/km.
4 driving modes
Peugeot recommends leaving the Hybrid4 in Auto mode for lowest fuel consumption. There are three other modes:
ZEV. Up to 70 km/h, with zero emissions. In Auto mode, the diesel starts up after 60 km/h).
4WD. Both engines run at the same time.
Sport. For dynamic driving, and in my experience involves keeping the diesel on the boil instead of allowing it to switch over to electric drive for maximum economy.
When not in Sport mode, the rev counter display gives way to a power and charge indicator. There’s also an “Eco” operating zone.
The 20 km test
Range of the electric motor is 3 to 4 km on average, from fully charged to flat. But, during a trip, it’s constantly being recharged: as a result, your electric-only travel time could be as much as half of the time spent travelling on a long trip. On a 20 km city mixed route in and around the town of Dinard, the meter showed that we had used the electric motor about 80 per cent of the time. I’ll admit that this entailed featherfooting it in super-economy style, taking maximum advantage of deceleration and downslopes to recharge the battery, avoiding sudden stops and accelerations and coasting towards traffic lights to avoid having to stop at all.
Peugeot said we had to shoot for 4 litres/100 km, the figure their expert drivers had achieved. We averaged 3,8, which is pretty damn good for a mixed route.
During a recent TV shoot, the interviewer decided to put me on the spot: which would I recommend – a turbodiesel or a hybrid?
For current South African conditions, given the hybrid’s complexity and its debatable economy advantage in “normal” driving, particularly if there’s a lot of highway travel involved, I picked the turbodiesel.
That doesn’t stop me from being impressed with what hybrids are capable of… and I like the idea of the 4x4 option that Hybrid4 offers.
