Peugeot will keep the current 208 supermini on sale with petrol power well into the future, with CEO Alain Favey confirming the new electric e-208 will be sold alongside the ICE car rather than as a replacement for it.

"We will continue to offer the 208 in its current form to cover the part of the market that will still not be EV and will still require some ICE or hybrid solutions," he said. "We will have these on the existing 208 as long as there will be demand."

The current 208 is offered with a choice of two mildly hybridised petrol engines and the new pure-petrol Turbo 100 1.2-litre triple, which has just been added to the options list.

Favey suggested these powertrain options will continue to be offered past 2030 to cater to the remaining portion of supermini buyers not ready to go electric - but he said Peugeot does "not expect this demand to be very strong".

He added: "We believe that BEV demand will grow very, very strongly. We believe there will be continued growth for BEV demand in the coming years, which is definitely where our focus is going to be - and that's why, for us, the launch of the new e-208 is the most important event in the B-segment."

Even if it is fundamentally unchanged underneath, the current 208 is likely to be extensively updated cosmetically inside and out to bring it in line with its new electric sibling and keep it fresh as the model passes its seventh birthday.