The B-Segment SUV market has just (officially) got itself another contestant in the form of the Peugeot 2008 that will make its international debut at the Geneva Auto Show in March, following an early release of the first pictures of the car on Friday.
The “urban crossover”, as the French marque calls it, will compete against vehicles such as the Nissan Juke, the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka, the Chevroler Traxx and the Mini Countryman and, according to Mazime Picat, the company’s general director, will “secure Peugeot’s leadership in the segment and will win new customers in Asia and Latin America”.
Measuring 4.16 m in length, the 2008 is 200mm longer than the 208 supermini and 20mm longer than the concept that was unveiled at the 2012 Paris Auto Show.
Design-wise, it features a version of Peugeot’s signature “floating grille”, newly-designed headlights, black bumpers and side sills with silver-painted accents, a panoramic sunroof and 17-inch “Diamond” wheels in matt finish with Mud & Snow Tires while the curved rear end of the roofline is inspired by the “double-bubble” roof of the RCZ coupe.
Peugeot has remained coy about the 2008’s powertrains, only disclosing that it will be powered by the company’s new 3-cylinder gasoline and the e-HDi diesel engines, with CO2 emissions starting from 99 g/km.
It did say though that the 2008 is its first product designed and developed simultaneously for several geographic regions and that it will be manufactured “close to its markets”, in its plants in Mulhouse (France), Wuhan (China) and Porto Real (Brazil).
By Andrew Tsaousis
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