Automotive World

Never mind the “greens”, Jeremy’s current favorite car is the Mercedes-Benz SLS. He is a petrolhead and apparently, not too fond of electric vehicles. Especially since the Tesla Roadster incident which led to the two parties becoming engaged in a legal battle.

Apart from being a car show, though, Top Gear is also about entertainment. This prompted two fans of the show to record a spoof video demonstrating an “eco race” between two zero emission vehicles: a “Nissan Leaf” and a “Peugeot iOn”.

The A9 project, which is the new 208’s internal designation, is very important for Peugeot as it will compete in the highly competitive European B-segment rivaling the likes of the Ford Fiesta and Toyota Yaris.

Its significance for Peugeot is evident in the marketing tag applied by the company's management: “Re-Generation”. The French firm's Marketing and Communications Director, Xavier Peugeot, said: “The 208 is a new illustration of the marque’s project launched two years ago, representing a new stage in Peugeot’s desire to drive itself towards even greater modernity.”

The 208 is the successor to the Peugeot 207 that has been in production since 2006, and it will compete against the likes of the Volkswagen Polo and Fiat Punto in the highly popular in Europe, B-segment.

According to the first details that were published along with the pictures, the 208 is more compact than the 207 measuring 3,975mm long, or 70mm less than its predecessor. More importantly, Peugeot's engineers managed to reduce the weight by a whopping 110kg or close to 250 pounds on average across the range.

First up is a new sports muffler with dual tailpipes on either side of the bumper that is available in a choice of two designs, with the oval shaped pipes priced at €733 in Germany and the round shape units at €788.