Peugeot 408: New coupe SUV to debut end of June

A new model, to be known as the Peugeot 408, will join the lion brand’s range, and muddy the distinction between crossovers and liftbacks.

Overnight Peugeot announced the new car “combines the characteristic codes of SUVs with a dynamic fastback silhouette”, and issued a teaser showing off the 408’s grille and badge.

Our spy photography agency photographed this car a few weeks ago.

Although the heavily camouflaged development vehicle had most of its styling details hidden away, we can see its crossover coupe silhouette and lifted body quite easily.

Peugeot says the 408 will be unveiled “towards the end of June 2022”.

When it goes on sale, it will complicate Peugeot’s naming structure, which currently sees traditional car styles given an x08 name, where x is a number denoting the car’s size.

Crossover vehicles currently adhere to the x008 naming scheme, again where x is a number specifying the car’s size.

Not only does the new 408 break down the distinction between traditional and crossover badges, but Peugeot already sells a model with the 408 badge: a sedan based on the previous generation 308 for the Chinese market.

Peugeot isn’t the first brand in the Stellantis stable to blur the line between crossover and traditional body designs, with the latest Citroen C4 featuring a fastback body with raised ride height and prominent wheel arch protectors.

We believe the new 408 will be based on the Stellantis EMP2 platform, and, as such, share a lot in common with the 308 hatch and wagon, as well as the Opel Astra and many others.

The company says the 408 has been designed for “high efficiency”, likely indicating it will be offered with the same plug-in hybrid drivetrains as the 308 and Astra.

These vehicles’ PHEV systems pair an 81kW electric motor with a 1.6-litre turbo engine making either 110kW or 132kW.

The on-board 12.4kWh battery pack is said to be good for about 60km of emissions-free driving according to the WLTP standard.