Peugeot 3008 vs Renault Austral vs Nissan Qashqai: Three Different Hybrids

These Are Not Three Versions Of The Same Idea

The word hybrid is doing a lot of work across these three cars, and it is hiding three different engineering answers. This matters because it changes what the published economy figures actually mean.

The practical consequence is that comparing combined mpg across these three is comparing three incompatible things. The Peugeot plug in hybrid's figure is produced by a test that assumes a significant amount of electric running, so it flatters a car that is only charged occasionally. The Renault's figure is a conventional full hybrid number and is the closest of the three to something you would recognise in use. The Nissan e-POWER's figure comes from a petrol engine working as a generator, which behaves differently again, particularly at steady motorway speed where a series hybrid has no mechanical path to the wheels to fall back on.

And one practical point that removes a whole category of question. Neither the Austral nor the Qashqai has a plug, in any version. So there is no charging time to compare, no wallbox to install and no three phase supply question for either of them. Only the Peugeot raises any of that.

The Qashqai Has Two Live Euro NCAP Ratings, And That Is The Biggest Trap Here

This is the single most important thing in this comparison and it is handled badly almost everywhere. Nissan's current generation Qashqai has been tested twice, four years apart, and both assessments are live.

The scores look like the car got worse and it did not. Euro NCAP's protocols got considerably harder between 2021 and 2025, and the 2025 test was run on the heavier e-POWER version. The same thing happens across the industry. What it does mean is that quoting the Qashqai as a five star car today is only half the story, and quoting it as a four star car is also only half.

Two small curiosities worth knowing because they show how messy this is. Euro NCAP's own record of the body type changed from five door hatchback in 2021 to five door SUV in 2025 for what is the same car. And the 2025 covered variants list includes a 1.3 petrol four wheel drive version that Nissan's current UK price and specification table does not offer, although its older mobile site, which is still live, does.

The Austral's Five Stars Were Earned By A Car The UK Never Got

The Austral's rating is the strongest looking of the three on paper and it needs the most context, because the car Euro NCAP crashed is not the car Renault sells here.

Put the three cars' ratings side by side honestly and the picture is less clear cut than any single table would suggest. The Peugeot's four stars were awarded in 2025 under the current protocol on the car it actually sells. The Renault's five stars were awarded in 2022 on a version the UK never received. The Nissan has both a 2021 five star result that is expiring and a 2025 four star result that is not. A reader who concludes the Renault is the safest of the three because it has the most stars has been misled by the way the data is presented rather than by anyone lying to them.

Three Boots, And Nissan Publishes A State The Others Do Not

All three measure differently, label differently and in two cases publish more than one answer. These are each manufacturer's own figures and labels.

Peugeot 3008

Peugeot's 588 litre figure carries no seats up label at all, and no reference to the measurement standard on any current page. Only the folded figure is labelled. Interestingly Peugeot's older price lists did use explicit standardised labels for minimum and maximum boot volume, and it has dropped that labelling on the current car.

Renault Austral

So Renault publishes two different maxima in two different documents, 1,525 litres on its specification page and 1,736 litres in its brochure, and it does not reconcile them. Its 657 litre figure is achieved by sliding the rear bench forward, which costs rear legroom, so it is not comparable with a fixed seats up figure from either rival.

Nissan Qashqai

The honest conclusion is the same as on boot figures generally in this segment. These three numbers cannot be ranked against each other. If boot space is what your decision rests on, tell us the load you actually need to carry and we will get the right figure confirmed from the funder's specification for the exact version you are considering.

Towing, And The One Figure We Are Not Going To Print

Towing is the clearest win in this comparison, and it is also where we have to leave a gap.

What we can say is that if you tow, the Qashqai mild hybrid automatic is the strongest of the three at 1,830kg braked, and the Peugeot is the weakest because Peugeot publishes nothing at all for the current car. Peugeot's previous generation price lists did publish a braked figure of 1,250kg for the hybrid and plug in hybrid, and never published an unbraked figure at any point, which tells you something about how long this gap has existed.

If towing matters, this is the figure we would get confirmed in writing from the funder's specification before you order, and on the e-POWER in particular we would insist on it.

The Grant Only Reaches One Of These Three

Only the Peugeot can qualify for the Electric Car Grant, and only in its fully electric E-3008 form. Here is the position as gov.uk states it.

The scheme requires zero grams of CO2 per kilometre at the tailpipe, so a full hybrid and a series hybrid are both excluded no matter how efficient they are. That is a rule about the technology rather than a judgement about the car.

The other eligibility conditions are worth knowing because they are not all about price. The car has to be a passenger vehicle, produce no tailpipe CO2, have a minimum battery range of 100 miles, carry at least a three year or 60,000 mile vehicle warranty and an eight year or 100,000 mile battery warranty, and meet minimum sustainability criteria. The seller applies the discount, so you do not apply for anything. The scheme opened in July 2025 and is due to close at the end of March 2030, and the grant amounts can change while it runs.

Prices, And The Price Lists That Describe The Wrong Car

Pricing is the weakest published area across all three, and for different reasons in each case.

One thing worth saying about all of this. List prices are a poor guide to what these three cost to lease, because funders price them differently and the gaps between them on a rental rarely match the gaps on paper. The Austral is the only one of the three with a current, dated, complete manufacturer price guide, which makes it the easiest to check and does not make it the best value.

Economy Figures, And Why Nissan Publishes Three Different Sets

We said earlier that comparing combined mpg across these three compares three different things. There is a second problem on top of that, which is that one of the three publishes several answers.

Lined up loosely and with all those caveats attached, the lowest tailpipe CO2 among the fuel burning versions goes to the Nissan e-POWER at 98 g/km on Nissan's current page, then the Renault at 107, then the Peugeot hybrid at 124. The Peugeot plug in hybrid's 57 g/km and the E-3008's zero are produced by completely different test assumptions and should not be read as being on the same scale. If company car tax is the reason you are asking, note that the bands and rates change each tax year, so the figure on the funder's specification at the time you order is the one that will actually apply to you.

Warranty

Two of the three are straightforward. The third contradicts itself.

On the Austral and the Qashqai, neither Renault nor Nissan publishes a separate traction battery warranty for its hybrid system that we could reach. Both have small batteries, 2 kWh in the Austral and 2.1 kWh in the Qashqai e-POWER, so the exposure is far smaller than on a full electric car. It is still worth having confirmed in writing, and we will ask for it as part of a quote.

So Which One Should You Lease

These three suit genuinely different people, which is unusual for cars this similar on the outside.

Our own pages go through each in more detail, and they are the Peugeot 3008, the Renault Austral and the Nissan Qashqai. If none of the three is quite right, the Kia Sportage, the Hyundai Tucson and the Skoda Kodiaq are the obvious alternatives at the same size and money, and we can put any of them into the same comparison.

The Peugeot is the only one of the three that lets you choose how electric you want to be, from a mild 48 volt system all the way to a 97 kWh Long Range electric car, and it is the only one that was crash tested in 2025 on the version it actually sells. Against that, Peugeot publishes the least usable information of the three: no current retail price list we could reach, no towing figures at all, an unlabelled boot figure and two different warranty splits on one page.

The Austral is the easy one to recommend to somebody who does not want to think about any of this. One powertrain, one current price guide with real prices and a stated order window, and a five star rating. The things to know are that the five stars were earned by a left hand drive petrol version the UK never got, and that its two published boot maxima differ by over 200 litres depending on which Renault document you read.

The Qashqai is the most interesting of the three and the most misrepresented. The e-POWER drivetrain genuinely has no equivalent here, it tows the most of any of these cars in mild hybrid automatic form, and it is the only one of the three that labels its boot figures properly enough to be checkable. Its safety position needs stating carefully rather than simplifying: there are two live ratings, the five star one expires at the end of 2027, and which applies to a given car depends on its vehicle identification number.

We can price all three on the same term and the same mileage, which is the only way to see what the differences actually cost. Tell us whether you tow, whether you can charge at home and whether you need a grant, and that usually narrows it to one.

Compare the 3008, Austral and Qashqai properly

Tell us your term, your mileage and whether you tow or can charge at home, and we will price all three across our funders so the real difference is visible.