Some brands prefer to let their car’s actual design do the talking; think BMW’s kidney grille, Toyota’s hammerhead lights, and Bugatti’s horseshoe grille – design elements so defined and developed that you’ll instantly recognise the brand, even without seeing their logos. But for Peugeot, at least for the new 2025 308 facelift, they’ve gone the complete opposite direction by lighting up the brand’s logo on the front fascia, just in case you can’t tell that it’s a Peugeot.
We didn’t think that it was really necessary, though, as the new front-end design on the facelift model still sports many of the French marque’s signature touches, like the “lion claw” light signature with the main headlight element now placed within the bumper, split from the daytime-running lights, and the unique cascading grille, here with a body-coloured treatment to seamlessly blend into the bodywork in front.
At least, the new illuminated logo doesn’t look out of place on the 308’s fancy new face, especially with the strip of “luminous strands” that tie the light signatures on both ends of the car together.
It’s not all just for style either, as the emblem actually hides the ADAS suite’s proximity radar inside, while the corner intakes on the new bumper are actually functional too, directing airflow towards the inside of the wheel arches, making the new Peugeot 308 “among the most aerodynamic in the segment”.
Complementing the new front fascia are the new 17- and 18-inch wheel designs, alongside new colours. The rest of the Peugeot 308’s design, including the entire rear end, remains identical from before, and yes – that means the estate 308 SW variant is here to stay.
Ditto the interior too, which saw almost no changes at all, save for some new graphics on the digital instrument cluster. As before, the new Peugeot 308 still has the customisable “i-Toggle” soft buttons below the 10-inch instrument cluster for shortcuts to your most-used settings.
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The 2025 Peugeot 308 continues to be offered in a variety of powertrains, including mild-hybrid petrol, diesel, and plug-in hybrid options, alongside fully electric variants called the E-308. The latter, powered by a single motor making 156 hp and 270 Nm of torque, is now paired to a slightly larger 58.4 kWh (55.4 kWh usable) battery pack, giving it a 34 km boost in range up to 450 km (WLTP combined cycle).
It’s a similar story for the plug-in hybrid variant, with a larger 17.2 kWh now giving it an additional 20 km of pure electric driving range (85 km, WLTP combined cycle). Otherwise, updates to the rest of the line-up consist of just some power bumps.
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The latest generation Peugeot 308 never made its way onto our shores, but now that the Stellantis Malaysia national sales company is at the helm of the brand here, with an assembly plant serving the interest of the region, we think it wouldn’t be amiss to consider the possibility of the facelift model making its way into our markets too.
For now, the closest thing we Malaysians can get is the Peugeot 408, a sedan-SUV crossover that shares many of its designs with the pre-facelift 308, including a very similar front-end styling, and the same i-Cockpit cabin. The Peugeot 408 is available in Malaysia in three variants, priced from RM146,055 to RM196,055. You can find the detailed specifications breakdown in our launch coverage, here.
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