PEUGEOT E-3008 GT

Tardy charging and poor range consigned our new E-3008 to home in a family emergency

- Chris Rosamond

AEX ELECTRIC cars are great, until they're not, and a family emergency at the new year put our new Peugeot E-3008 on the spot.

It's 160 miles from my house in Hampshire to my mum's place in Devon, which should be a breeze for the car with a 327-mile maximum quoted range and a 73kWh battery. The key word there is 'should', because I used the Peugeot on the same route at Christmas, and it stumbled somewhat.

Starting out with a full battery and 300-plus miles showing on the dash, I arrived at the array of 350kW ultra-rapid chargers at Exeter's Moto services (still 25 miles short of my destination) with only 30 per cent of charge left. It was 10pm on Christmas Eve, and I plugged in, expecting an 'ultra-rapid' charge that would see us on to Torbay and back to Hampshire in one hit.