Peugeot claimed it has set a new long-distance fuel consumption record, achieving 141mpg over 1337.1 miles using a 208 powered by a 1.6-litre diesel engine, at the Belchamp test circuit in France.
The record was supervised by the French Approval Authority. The firm said its “strictly standard production” 208 with the 1.6-litre 100 Blue HDI S&S engine and five-speed manual gearbox ran for 36 hours with several drivers being used to achieve the result, driving in stints of between three and four hours at a time.
The 208 goes on sale in the UK from this autumn. The French car maker said the model tested emits 79g/km of CO2 and returns 94.2mpg on the official cycle.
Peugeot said its entire range of 208 diesel engines drop below the 95g/km of CO2 benchmark while the most frugal petrol model emits 97g/km of CO2.
The firm finished in third in this year’s BusinessCar greenest car makers analysis behind Volvo and Toyota.