Heading

Close X
Menu

Marshall Peugeot Cambridge | EV Experience Day

Marshall Peugeot Cambridge recently hosted an event, focusing on electric vehicles for RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders Cambridgeshire, part of ROSPA.

With all new vehicles to run on cleaner energy (electric, hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell) from 2030, Tutors are going to have to just get used to taking students out in these types of vehicles, even if they have little experience in EV themselves. With this in mind, Committee member and Tutor Peter Thwaites of RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders Cambridgeshire (RoADARC) arranged an “EV Experience Day” with local dealership Marshall Peugeot of Cambridge.

Find out more about RoSPA

The day started with 16 Tutors and committee members meeting at the dealership. After a warm welcome and a little bit of paperwork, we all gathered around chatting to each other eager to see what was in store. We didn’t have to wait long as two members of the Marshall Peugeot management gave an informative talk on the Peugeot EV range including all electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid. Following their presentation, they opened up to the floor for a Q&A session, answering all our questions with great knowledge.

View our Electric and Hybrid Stock

Once all questions had been answered, the Tutors were shown to the range of cars they had prepared for us to test drive. This included Peugeot 208,308, 3008 Hybrids and fully electric. We split up into groups of 2-3 per car and each group picked the model they wanted to start with. We were then given free rein of route and how long the test drives were. Myself and a fellow member took out the all-electric 208 and heading out of Cambridge to open back roads where we could get a better feel of the car. After about 10 miles we swapped drivers and again made our way around the area using a mixture of back roads, city driving and dual carriageway. We finally ended up back at the dealership and was greeted by Matt, the Sales Manager, who asked us how we got on. Around the same time another group arrived so we swapped cars with them and we departed in a hybrid 308. We did the same route as before, swapping drivers again halfway round. Once we all had arrived back at the dealership we all exchanged notes of how we got on and what our thoughts of the cars were.

As a driver of an IC geared car and very little experience with automatics and none with EV vehicles, I can truly say the transition was easy and the controls were all very easy to use. The ride was smooth and acceleration was instant and continuous. Chatting to everyone at the end, it was clear to see that they all felt a lot more confident to take out students in EV’s, with some stating they wouldn’t have taken someone out in an EV before today but are now happy to do so.

If anyone has the opportunity to take a drive in an EV, even if you have no intention at the moment of owning one, I highly recommend you do.

RoADARC are very grateful to Marshall Peugeot Cambridge for this opportunity to combine the latest car technology with driving skills towards promoting road safety and saving lives.