In a few days of testing, the Peugeot e-3008 will have accumulated too many bugs to ignore.
It is more and more common for cars to have a few bugs when they are launched. No brand is spared. More generally, these are minor “software” problems (driving assistance or the on-board system) which can be resolved by a subsequent update. This is rarely a blocking element for the marketing of the new product.
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Press tests also often contain their share of surprises, with more or less disingenuous bugs. This is what happened during my test of the Peugeot e-3008. The car, in its electric version, is good in many aspects, but the repeated software problems have tarnished the experience a bit.
The malfunction of the on-board system is a bug that we are likely to encounter more and more regularly on new cars, including Teslas. However, on the American brand, a reboot pressing the two knobs on the steering wheel is generally enough to recover a system with all its capabilities.
The case of the Peugeot e-3008 proved more troublesome. In the middle of a highway trip, all the vehicle's screens went out. Which corresponds to losing many functions: driving aids (cruise control in this case), music, GPS, and all meter indications.
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To recover from its crash, the e-3008 needs an impromptu nap of around ten minutes, during which the key must not enter the perimeter of the car. Please note, a recharge break does not count as a forced nap… that would have been too easy.
It's one thing for the system to crash, but it's a problem if it can't be restarted from the vehicle.
Notifications in every direction
The notifications on the instrument screen almost got the better of my patience. Normally, GPS messages, indicating a change of direction, appear at certain distances so that the driver is warned in advance. Except that this Peugeot e-3008 told me approximately every two kilometers when I would have to exit the motorway: at 184 km, 182 km, 180 km… The warning irremediably draws the eye towards the screen , which is enough to drive you crazy after a hundred displays.
To make sure you don't get bored, other alerts were also added: such as being able to use the automatic lane change. Finally, when it wanted to work well.
A broken GPS/planner
While some Peugeot e-3008s (tested by colleagues) had no problem with the GPS and planner, that of our test model simply never wanted to work. Despite attempts in different contexts, he never wanted to know anything.
At best, the GPS calculated a route, but never triggered while driving, at worst, an empty space was displayed in place of the GPS.
Android auto/Bluetooth disconnections
Without a functional GPS in the car, you had to opt for phone sharing to have this function. Overall, the system works pretty well, but the Bluetooth signal has been lost countless times in 7 days. It is better to opt for the wired connection (USB-C) to avoid this inconvenience.
Let us point out, however, that the outages were only of short duration. You just have to hope that it doesn't cut off at the wrong time, during guidance for example.
No key, capricious starts and stops…
The error indicating non-detection of the key on board is something that can be experienced quite commonly across different brands. Some cars wake up more difficult than others. What is interesting in the case of the e-3008 is that even if the message of no key is displayed, the car starts. Which should not be the case, if the key was really not detected in the passenger compartment. Let's hope that this is indeed a display bug and not a possible source of piracy!
The journalist who had the car before me was unable to start the car on several occasions. This appears as a black screen with error symbols. The solution is identical to that of my black screen while driving: let the car sink back into a nap before trying its luck again.
The shutdown may also have turned out to be more complicated than expected. Despite the car being put in P (parking) and the Start & Stop button pressed, nothing shuts off. Even when walking away and locking the car, the screens remain clearly visible with the last known information, as if the car was still running (enough to drain the 12 volt battery without paying attention). Sometimes it took several attempts for the system to understand that it needed to stop.
During this test of more than a week, the Peugeot e-3008 made a fairly wide range of errors, to the point that other small details that were a little strange in use perhaps took second place. The fact that the heated seats are automatically restarted at the next start, even after a 24-hour pause, is for example a somewhat surprising choice in terms of software management.
What to remember from this Peugeot e-308 test
Not all Peugeot e-3008s encounter this set of bugs. The models dedicated to press tests are often pre-series vehicles, not always well born. However, several colleagues have confirmed to me that they encountered problems, more or less annoying, during their tests.
Taken one by one, these little hiccups are not always shared in the published tests. Unfortunately, having accumulated the grand slam of bugs of all kinds, it seemed necessary to me to talk about them so that the first customers are vigilant. Hopefully updates will have fixed all the issues by then.