Major car firm boss considering revival of beloved discontinued model as ‘hot’ EV – two months after it was axed from UK
A MAJOR car firm boss has revealed plans to revive a beloved discontinued model as a “hot” EV.
Peugeot is reportedly making plans to bring back a new, electrified avatar of its much-loved hatchback 208GTi.
Top boss Alain Favey said he has been thinking about reviving the hot hatch.
He said bringing back the GTi version was “a question I’ve been asking myself very much”, Autocar reports.
When asked if there would ever be an electrified version of 208GTi, Favey said: “I am very eager to connect the Peugeot brand with what it stands for to its past, to its heritage in every sense.
“So we will look back at what the heritage of the brand is and we will see to what extent this can be adapted to the modern world – and there is nothing excluded in our review of this and certainly not the GTi badge, for sure.”
The last time a 208 came out of the factory with the GTi moniker was in 2019.
Favey says the new 208GTi EV would likely be a performance variant of the e-208.
The news of the revival comes just two months after the sister model 508 was axed from production in the UK.
The manufacturer said the discontinuation of the estate was due to the UK government’s introduction of the net zero emission rules.
Meanwhile, a British car brand announced it will revive an iconic model eight years after it was discontinued – but it won’t be made here.
The new project will be a joint enterprise with one of the world’s largest manufacturers.
The Freelander name was initially slapped on a range of Land Rover 4x4s that ran from 1997 to 2015.
An instant hit with drivers, the Mk1 Freelander would sell 540,000 units, making it the best-selling four-wheel drive model in Europe at the time.
However, sales declined to around a tenth of that by 2014 and the model was axed a year later.
The Freelander was largely absorbed by the still-popular Range Rover Evoque, which was introduced in 2011.
Now, though, parent company Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed that the model will return as an all new, electric SUV.
It will be built by Chery, a Chinese manufacturer owned by the provincial government of its base in Wuhu City.
The two brands have been partnered up for 12 years, with Chery already making the Land Rover Discovery, the Evoque and Jaguar’s E-Pace, XF and XE models.
Production of the Freelander will be based at Chery’s factory in eastern China and will only be available in Asia at first.