Peugeot 208 – Premium Hatchback for India?

The French automobile giant Peugeot will be entering India once again and the Peugeot 208 will be the first car it starts selling here. We were the first to spy this car in India, 2 years back and bring this news you.

During that time, the company had stalled its India plans owing to the European crisis. Now, PSA group (Peugeot) has partnered with CK Birla group for manufacturing cars in their Chennai facility itself. The Peugeot 208 will be their first product in all likelihood.

The Peugeot 208 has also been spied testing alongside Hyundai i20. The Hyundai Elite i20 will be a direct competition to the Peugeot 208. The company will try to price the 208 in line with the Elite i20. This is the major competition. The 208 will come with petrol as well as diesel engines. In terms of features, it will get all the bells and whistles.

The Hindustan Motors plant in Tamil Nadu is where this car will be produced.

It has also been spotted there on numerous occasions. The PSA Group is setting up its plant in Tamil Nadu itself. Initially, there were rumours that Peugeot could be looking at Gujarat. That was the initial plan as the Peugeot test mules came to India through the Navi Mumbai port itself. The company has evaluated the best suited products for the Indian market. The company is coming in JV with Hindustan Motors, which is one of the oldest car brands in India. While HM has a rich heritage, It never had any strong brand apart from the Ambassador, which was their best seller. Even Mitsubishi, never took off really, partnering with HM. Lets see how Peugeot takes this game forward. Read further to know more about the Peugeot 208.

Peugeot 208 Launch Date

The company has not given any official date of launch. We expect the Peugeot 208 to hit the Indian market only by early 2019. There is a likelihood of this car being displayed at the Auto Expo 2018. It will be interesting to see how this car will compete with already well established brands in India, especially from Maruti and Hyundai.

Peugeot 208 Price in India

This new hatchback is expected to be priced between ₹ 7 lakhs to ₹ 10 Lakhs, on-road. At this price, it will compete head-on with the Hyundai i20 and also the Maruti Baleno and Honda Jazz. Peugeot may try to give it an attractive initial price tag. To keep prices low, the company is looking at high levels of localization. This will enable it to keep the services low as well.

Also Read: Fiat Argo coming to India??

Peugeot 208 Design

The Peugeot 208 is not a conventional looking hatchback. It is designed in a radical way.  The front of the new version does look similar to the present Elite i20. The style quotient is high and is also loaded with good equipment.

The lines are crisp and neat. The Peugeot 208 gets a new wide grille. The headlamps get LED daytime running lights. The LED tail-lamps are very attractive and it also gets fancy alloy wheels. The Peugeot 208 has a bold look and is distinctive looking car had received a facelift in 2015, which included a very aggressive styling and redesigned bumpers, lamps and grille.

Interior

Classy and stylish interiors will define the 208. The quality will be up there with the best. The car comes loaded with features. It will have a neat instrument cluster with a MID screen, a touchscreen infotainment system, with navigation and bluetooth. The car will also get Apple car play and Android Auto. It will also have steering mounted controls and a leather wrapped steering wheel and rear knob. The seats are well bolstered and are wide for top class comfort.

The car will come with dual airbags as standard and higher variants will get upto 6 airbags. It is also one of the rare hatches in the segment to offer the option of Park Assist, an active parking assistance system allowing a vehicle to park in and leave a parallel parking space automatically. We can expect the French premium hatchback to come loaded with features.

Also Read: Upcoming Volkswagen cars in India

Peugeot 208 Engine

Internationally, the Peugeot 208 comes with a range of 1.0-litre, 1.2-litre and 1.2-litre turbo petrol engines, internationally. The diesel engine will be a 1.5-litre unit. This will be a scaled down version of the 1.6-litre unit selling in Europe. The engine will come mated to a five-speed manual transmission. A 1.2-litre turbo petrol will also be a good choice and will make a talking point for the company as well. However, it is still a tad early to come to any conclusion. With the benchmark testing, we reckon the naturally aspirated 1.2-litre petrol should be coming into picture.

Peugeot 208 Competition

The Peugeot 208 will be a direct competition to the Volkswagen Polo, Hyundai i20, Maruti Baleno and the Fiat Punto Evo. The 208 is the Peugeot best-selling hatchback and is looking at entering India with this premium hatchback. There will be a choice of manual and automatic transmissions. The engines will be powerful and aim to be fuel efficient as well.