Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 diesel hybrid promises Prius-beating mpg

Heads up, bark-fondlers. We've just had some face-time and shot a video with the world's first diesel hybrid, the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4, which promises a couple of notable advantages over the market-leading Toyota Prius.

Firstly, it's significantly larger. The car has 420 litres of boot space with an additional 66 litres available under the boot floor. Better still, the rear seats fold flat to free up a total of 1,501 litres -- 381 more than the Prius.

It also delivers better fuel economy. The 3008 Hybrid4 uses a 2-litre 163bhp oil-burning engine mated to a 37bhp electric motor, which work together to achieve 74.4mpg -- 2mpg more than the latest Toyota Prius.

The only major drawback is the fact the diesel engine spews 99g of carbon dioxide per kilometre -- 10g/km more than its Japanese rival. And that means you'll have to decide whether you care more about your environment or your wallet.

Happily for eco nutters, the 3008 is capable of running in a battery-only, zero-emissions mode, albeit only for a mere 4.5km (2.8 miles) and only if the car's onboard nickel-metal hydride battery pack has a sufficient level of charge. It's a fairly gimmicky feature, but it might make parents, for example, feel better about taking the car on very short trips such as dropping the kids off at school.

The 3008 comes with a bunch of driver aids designed to make it easier to live with day-to-day. There's parallel-park assist, which calculates the size of a parking space to determine whether the car will fit, plus a head-up display, which beams speed and navigation information directly on to the windscreen in your line of sight.

Peugeot's supplied the car with oodles of entertainment tech, too. The 3008 has an integrated navigation and media hard drive that can be used to rip CDs and has a 7-inch display sitting on top of the dashboard. This, we're told, can be used to play DVDs or show 3D maps courtesy of Peugeot's fancy Connect 3-D Media Navigation system.

Peugeot's keeping quiet on the 3008 Hybrid4's pricing for the moment, but it tells us the car will launch in spring 2011.

Watch the video above to find out more.