The Peugeot 508 will be marketed in December as part of the VE campaign

The Peugeot 508 will be discontinued in December, Autocar can reveal.

The French manufacturer attributed the cancellation of the executive saloon and estate to the UK government’s introduction of a zero-emission vehicle mandate.

In a statement provided to Autocar, he said: “We have chosen to focus even more on our electric models in the UK, with the ZEV mandate giving us a clear direction to do so.

“Thanks to this, all Peugeot passenger cars are now available with electric and hybrid engines.”

The move is almost certainly a result of poor sales of the 508. Since 2019, its first full year on sale, Peugeot has delivered only around 7,000 examples in the UK. Last year, fewer than 700 left showrooms.

Peugeot will offer the 508 exclusively as a plug-in hybrid in GT trim until its demise later this year.

This means that the Peugeot Sport Engineered (PSE) sub-brand is effectively dead in the UK, just four years after the launch of the 508 PSE.

The 355bhp PHEV arrived in saloon and estate guises in late 2020, but failed to attract significant demand even after last year’s facelift.

The move further casts doubt on PSE’s future, with the only other car to use the brand, the 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar, having only achieved one podium finish in the World Endurance Championship in the last two years.

Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson recently cast a chill on the prospect of expanding the PSE range, telling Autocar: “To be honest, we thought about[expanding the range]but then the priority came into play, and it’s all about electrification.”

Jackson added that “prioritisation” was needed, with Peugeot instead focusing on offering more electric cars.

“Ultimately it’s about awareness, but also about engineering and sustainability, which you can do without necessarily having a road car,” Jackson said.

His comments mirror those of marketing director Phil York, who told Autocar in March: “I think we’ve activated it quite heavily in our marketing communications activity, and that’s really where we’re leveraging it.

“It’s an opportunity for us to address a younger audience. We had content creators at Le Mans last year. We’ve done commercial activations in all our markets. So it’s about increasing brand visibility, getting the brand out there and resonating with people who aren’t necessarily interested in motorsport, getting them interested in what we do. That’s the key lever, if I put my marketing hat on.”

As previously reported by Autocar, the 508 will be revived for a third generation. It will be heavily redesigned and repositioned in a bid to boost its popularity.