If you like the idea of owning a wagon with electric power you’re not short of options in 2025 – at least in Europe. The Audi A6 e-tron Avant, BMW i5 Touring and Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo heading our money-no-object list. Rewind three years, and Peugeot’s E-308 SW was one of only a couple of options, but now with middle age approaching the affordable electric wagon pioneer is getting a makeover.

Spied parked up in a Stellantis R&D facility, this SW – Peugeot says the letters stand for Station Wagon – has the automaker’s trademark crystal-effect camouflage wrap on its nose and tail. And it’s irritatingly good at its job, keeping the details of the styling tweaks mostly safe from prying eyes.

Related: The First Electric GTI Isn’t From VW, It’s From Peuegot

But we can see that the fenders, hood and headlight shape don’t appear to have changed, and it’s just possible to make out the new grille, which consists of a series of upright bars, just like on the facelifted 2008 SUV. It’s possible that the 308 could adopt a similar DRL claw arrangement to the 2008, swapping the current car’s single downward swipe for three.

It looks like the rear changes could be even more discrete, the contours of the bodywork beneath the camouflage suggesting tweaks will be limited to new rear light signatures and possibly a new profile for the section of lower bumper located between the fog and reverse lights.

Potential Powertrain Upgrades

But those minimal styling updates might be hiding some more substantial changes under the skin. Right now the only powertrain setup available in the E-308 is a single 154 h (156 PS) / 115 kW) electric motor that’s pulls its charge from a small 54 kWh battery that gives a range of around 254 miles (409 km).

But since the E-308 was launched we’ve been introduced to several newer single-motor Stellantis EVs built on the same E-CMP platform with far more power. Peugeot’s own E-208 GTI, for example has 276 hp (280 PS / 206 kW), so it’s possible the E-308 SW could get the option of that powertrain – potentially with GTI branding. And the E-208 GTI’s Abarth’s 600e cousin additionally offers a 237 hp (240 PS / 177 kW) motor that could also work in the 308.

A Facelift for the Entire Family

Whatever new goodies the E-308 adopts, you can expect them to be shared with its hatchback sibling. The design updates, meanwhile, will likely make their way to the combustion 308 as well, with an expected rollout in early 2026.

Baldauf

VW has promised to put its legendary GTI badge on a production EV before the end of the decade, but one of its biggest hot hatch rivals, a brand with its own back catalog of GTI heroes, has only gone and beaten it to the punch.

Peugeot revealed the E-208 GTI at this year’s Le Mans 24H in France, bringing the GTI badge back to its lineup after a six-year absence and using it on an electric car for the first time. The regular 208 is available with petrol or ICE power, so Peugeot has hinted that it could also create a 208 GTI with a combustion engine in the future, but for now, it’s going all-in on electric.

Related: Peugeot E-3008 And E-5008 Gaining New Performance Variant

The 208/e-208 is built around a version of the e-CMP Stellantis platform used on cars like the Fiat 600 and Alfa Romeo Junior, and so it comes as no surprise that the e-208 GTI shares much with the hot electric version of those cars, the Abarth 600e Scorpionissima and Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce.

It gets the same single electric motor that sends 276 hp (280 PS / 206 kW) and 255 lb-ft (345 Nm) to the front wheels, though Peugeot claims a small performance advantage, saying the GTI gets to 62 mph (100 kmh) in 5.7 seconds, rather than the 5.9 seconds it takes the Alfa and Abarth.

Outmoves the Mini JCW

That makes the E-208 GTI Peugeot’s quickest accelerating GTI ever, and quicker than all three electric Mini Coopers. The punchiest of those, the 258 hp (262 PS / 192 kW) JCW  is 0.2 seconds slower to 62 mph, though it will pull clear of the Pug at the top end, reaching 124 mph (200 kmh), rather than 112 mph (180 km) before a limiter stops the fun.

Peugeot

Both have 54 kWh (gross) batteries, but the JCW does more with it, stretching a charge up to 226-250 WLTP miles (364-402 km) while the Pug is reaching for the plug at just 217 miles (350 km). Charge speeds are nothing special, Peugeot claiming a 20-80 percent fill takes “less than” 30 minutes, which is on a par with the JCW, though the 208 proves faster in AC hook-up situations and is the only one to offer standard V2L.

Retro design cues

A 30 mm (1.2 inches) suspension drop and a track widened by 56 mm (2.2 inches) at the front and 27 mm (1.06 inches) at the rear give Peugeot’s latest GTI the kind of square stance that made the classic 205 GTI 1.9 a visual knockout. The 18-inch wheels even pay homage to the 1.9’s rims with their multi-hole design and a center badge whose red GTI letters look like the ones on the badge fitted to the 205’s C-pillar.

There’s more red on the stretched arch flares, the outer portions of the grille, the headlights, and on the four-piston brake callipers, which grab 355-mm rotors. And the red-fest continues inside with red ambient lighting and digital displays (both can be changed to other colors), red floor mats and seatbelts, red stitching on the dashboard and also on the sports seats whose central red stripe again riffs on the design 205 1.9’s half-leather chairs, while the mesh-effect pattern tips a hat to the 1.6 versions’s cloth seats.

With all those nods to Peugeot’s greatest ever hot hatch, let’s hope the driving experience lives up to the promise when the GTI goes on sale later this year, probably priced around £36,000. Besides the better brakes, the GTI package includes retuned springs and dampers, a new rear anti-roll bar, track-friendly Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber, and reworked steering assistance, so the signs are good. But the proof is going to be in the driving. How do you rate the E-208’s chances of going down in history as another GTI icon?

Peugeot