Towards the end of April a new long-distance fuel consumption record was set by the Peugeot 208 in France. According to the manufacturer the record was achieved under the supervision of the French Type Approval Authority at a test circuit in Belchamp.

The Peugeot 208 that set the record was a standard model with a 1.6 litre Blue HDi 100bhp engine. The car covered 2,152km using just 43 litres of diesel, which means it achieved an average fuel consumption of just 2.0l/100km (or 141.2 mpg in old money). The car ran for 38 consecutive hours.

The new 208 will be launched in Ireland this July. The official fuel consumption figure for the vehicle is 3.0l/100km and it has low CO2 emissions of 79g/km.