The current Peugeot 308 won the European Car of the Year award in 2014 shortly after production commenced, so its successor needs to be pretty darn good as it has big shoes to fill.
With cars such as the new generation Volkswagen Golf, Renault Megane and Ford Focus out, there’s a bigger-than-ever weight on the shoulders of the French company when it comes to developing the next generation of its compact car, and it seems that they’re willing to change a lot of things.
Read: One-Off Tuned Peugeot 308 GTi Has Racing-Inspired Looks, 302 PS
First and most important, the next 308 will get a plug-in hybrid powertrain. This was confirmed to AutoNews by CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato, who admitted that a battery-electric variant of the car is also under consideration, yet even if it gets the green light for production, it will arrive later on.
“Yes, it will be on the EMP2 platform”, Imparato said, adding that “it will be a plug-in hybrid first, but could perhaps later have a full-electric drivetrain. Our compact and midsize cars will have plug-in hybrid drivetrains because it’s a smoother way to switch from internal combustion to electric.”
Peugeot might be the trend-setter within the PSA Group in the compact hatchback segment, as they should be followed by sister brands Citroen and Opel/Vauxhall with similar versions of the car that will sell under the C4 (unconfirmed yet) and Astra monikers, respectively. The three vehicles will share the same platform, technologies and most of the powertrains, so it’s very likely that we will see PHEV and EV versions of all of them.
