Four-wheel drive was the magic sauce, that indefinable thing that generates desire, that feeds an obsession. Ever since Audi first thought of adding four-wheel drive to a low-slung coupe to turn it into the most fearsome rally weapon of them all, having power going to all four wheels was a minimum requirement for dream car status.
Although I’m slightly too young to have lusted much after an Audi Quattro during its heyday, I certainly craved the cars it inspired — the Sierra Cosworth, the Lancia Delta Integrale, the Toyota Celica GT4, and latterly the glorious original Subaru Impreza.
All cars based on humble family machines that put their copious power down through all four contact patches. On the west Cork roads of my youth, that made for a far more enticing proposition than any Ferrari or Lamborghini.
Sadly, the hot all-wheel-drive car seems to have fallen out of favour in the years since. Improvements in tyre tech, and especially in the arcane electronics of stability control have in part erased the tractive advantage of the flame-spitting 4WD country-fried supercars.
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Equally, the cost of running such a machine – the extra weight and friction of four-wheel drive and the consequent effects on fuel economy and emissions – meant many just bought two-wheel-drive cars and shoved their old rally-star dreams to the back of a drawer.
Now, though, there’s a chance – a slim one but a chance all the same – that electric power offers us a cheat code for clawing back our fast, four-wheel-drive dreams.
Adding an extra electric motor for more power and performance is a relatively simple thing to do, and although it will impact efficiency and range, that impact is cushioned by the fact that charging up at home is always going to be much, much cheaper than pumping in litres of former-dinosaur juice.
Which means that this new Peugeot E-3008 Dual Motor GT seems oddly compelling, to me at least. The existing front-wheel-drive electric E-3008 is one of the more notably impressive mid-size EVs when it comes to delivering usable real-world range.
It also looks sharp, with those almost malevolent headlights, the grille that melts in and out of the front bodywork, and the chopped roofline that genuinely gives it the air of a kinda-sorta-coupe. It’s handsome.
Oddly, this range-topping Dual Motor version is no more handsome. For a car with 325hp, all-wheel drive and a tweaked, sportier chassis, you’d have expected more visual thrills, or at least a badge with more evocation than “Dual Motor”.
However, as Emmanuel Varene, head of the E-3008’s development told The Irish Times: “We didn’t want to over-promise with a badge like GTI or Peugeot Sport Engineered. Besides, a car with those badges should be one level above this model.”
We’ll start to see what Varene means with the imminent reveal of the E-208 GTi, the first EV to wear those hallowed letters. In the meantime, making do with the E-3008 Dual Motor will be no hardship at all.
As with the exterior, there’s nothing on the inside to tell you that this is the hottest 3008. It’s still a cracking cabin though, even if it’s a bit tight in the back for anyone who’s graduated from national school.
The boot’s a bit smaller too, due to the space taken up by the 112hp rear motor, but you’d be churlish to call this anything but a reasonably practical car (and the far roomier E-5008 Dual Motor will be just across the showroom floor…).
What really makes the E-3008 Dual Motor stand out, though, is what Peugeot has done under the skin. The springs, dampers, and anti-roll bars have all been stiffened up, but the best bit is the revised steering, which has some actual feel and feedback, and turns the standard model’s over-assisted rack into something far sharper and more engaging.
In combo, the tighter steering and tauter suspension make this E-3008 really quite a rewarding companion on a challenging road. Really tight corners with fast approaches will remind you, very quickly, that this car weighs an unhelpful 2.2 tonnes and that is a limiting factor. However, on slightly more open roads with longer radius corners, the E-3008 Dual Motor is properly enjoyable to drive, with engaging responses and a sense of sporty crispness. You do pay for the stiffer suspension with an urban ride that’s considerably harder-edged, though.
However, you don’t pay all that much for the extra lower and 90kg of extra weight. This Dual Motor model uses the same 73kWh battery as the regular E-3008 (we’re still waiting for the long-range 98kWh version with its 700km range, but production slowness at Peugeot’s battery producer is slowing things up) and that means a reduction in official range from 527km to 490km.
However, Peugeot may be a touch pessimistic here. Over a long day’s driving on motorways, in crowded towns, and on some vertiginous country roads, we averaged 18.5kWh/100km, only slightly worse than the official WLTP figure and that was driving almost all the time in Sport mode with the air conditioning on.
A touch more care should see you do better than that, and so the efficiency and range penalty for the extra power and poise might just be minimal. Figure on a fairly reliable 440km real-world range, not much worse off than the front-wheel drive model.
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That’s a small price to pay for the impressive boost in performance (0-100km/h in 6.0 seconds with hugely enjoyable mid-range thrust for overtaking or fast motorway merging) and the extra traction which made the E-3008 feel rock-steady when the heavens opened and a huge burst of rain hit the tarmac in front of us.
The 325hp is way more power than that offered by any of my 1980s and 90s rally heroes, and now I can have it at hardly any running cost penalty? Yes please.
The downside is that there will still be a chunky cost penalty – Peugeot Ireland still hasn’t set prices as this Dual Motor model won’t be with us for at least six months yet, but it’s likely to top the €55,000 mark. That’s a lot of cash, so once again, probably few Irish buyers will take the plunge. I’d be tempted, though…
