Peugeot 2008 Crossover: UK price from £12,995

The compact SUV come crossover version of the new 208 – the Peugeot 2008 – will cost from £12,995 in the UK rising to around £19,000.

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Peugeot decided that the new 208 – for which they have big hopes – won’t spawn either a 208 estate or a 208 cabriolet but would be the basis for a compact SUV/Crossover to try and cash-in on the rising popularity of tough little urban runarounds.

That meant the Urban Crossover Concept from Geneva in 2012 turning in to the new Peugeot 2008 at the start of 2013 – before heading to Geneva 2013 for its public debut – and with that other French car maker, Renault, going a similar route with the Clio-based Captur, it’s clear the French see the future of compact cars moving away from hatchbacks to something more rugged.

But unlike the Captur – which was a bit of a disappointing looking Clio on stilts – the Peugeot 2008 does look a more convincing offering, even if it’s a more generic-looking compact SUV than the Nissan Juke and would, for our money, be the pick over the Captur.

Peugeot are targeting 8,000 sales a year in the UK for the 2008, and with prices starting at £12,995 and heading up to around £19,000 it seems, if anything, a quite modest target, especially as Peugeot reckons 65 per cent of 2008 customers will be new to the brand.

Engine choices in the 2008 will be a choice of 1.2 litre and 1.6 litre petrols and 1.4 litre and 1.6 litre diesels (with Peugeot expecting the biggest seller to be the 1.6 litre diesel with 92bhp – we’d take a petrol version) and will come with a choice of four trim levels – Access+, Active, Allure and Feline – with Peugeot’s ‘Grip Control’ available on the Allure models with the 1.6 litre engines and standard on the Feline trim.

The Peugeot 2008 arrives in the UK in July, so if you want one you’d better start heading off to your local Peugeot dealers.