The lion’s out of the bag.
Photos of the 2022 Peugeot 308 have been leaked on the Worldscoop forums ahead of its imminent reveal.
It’s the same green, plug-in hybrid GT model our spy photographers recently captured almost entirely undisguised.
What we haven’t seen before is the rear, which bears a resemblance to that of the 2008 crossover.
The tail lights are part of a full-width, smoked assembly as on the 2008, though the elements are changed for the 308 – instead of vertical lines, they’re diagonal.
There are various design elements present on the new 308 bringing it visually in line with the rest of the Peugeot range, including the dramatic LED daytime running light ‘fangs’, though the side creasing is unique to the 308.
The overall shape of the 308 is an evolution of that of the current car, much as underneath that sheetmetal sits the current car’s EMP2 platform.
The interior has also been leaked in full and is a dramatic change from the outgoing model, with an edgy design full of sharp creases.
In terms of its design, it more closely resembles the larger 508’s interior.
The touchscreen has grown, while underneath it sits a panel of touch-capacitive shortcut buttons.
A row of switchgear sits below this.
There’s no conventional shifter, with the transmission controls instead sitting on an angled platform that rises from the centre console and connects to the centre stack.
On the other side of this from the driver is a covered storage space that likely contains cupholders, while there’s a little storage nook ahead of it.
There’s also a digital instrument cluster and a relatively small, low-set steering wheel as on the swan-song 2021 308.
We expect the 308 to grow slightly longer and wider.
The current car is one of the smaller vehicles in its class, at least when compared with Japanese and Korean rivals. It’s extremely close in dimensions, however, to the Volkswagen Golf.
Peugeot sold 218 examples of the current 308 locally last year. That’s down from 1491 sales as recently as 2015.
The company sold over 1000 examples each year until 2018 when sales slumped to 395.
The 308 sells as well as any European rival that isn’t called the Volkswagen Golf. Last year, it outsold the Alfa Romeo Giulietta (120) but was narrowly beaten by the Renault Megane (233).