In the first quarter of the year, it represents nearly 47 percent of the company's passenger car sales here.
This reflects the importance of the supermini segment in Ireland where it is the second most popular size of car after the compact C-segment.
Next in the Peugeot line-up are the 508 mid-sized saloon with almost 16 percent of the brand's sales mix and the 308 with a similar proportion.
Emma Toner, Marketing Manager with Peugeot Ireland, says the 208 has pushed the Peugeot market share in Ireland up by half a percentage point. "Year to date, we are at 3.4 percent and this time last year we were at 2.9. We knew that 208 would increase our market share and we had anticipated a full 1 percent. Now, in light of the market decline by 14 percent, we are extremely happy with the 208's performance."
60 percent of 208 sales were to existing customers while 40 percent were conquests from other models in the same segment. "It's a really healthy mix," Emma said.
