Peugeot presses pause on 308 GTI production

Peugeot has confirmed that sales of its 308 GTI will be suspended while production is paused to allow it to re-engineer the small hot hatch to meet the latest 'Euro 6.2' emission rules.

Production is set to halt at the 308 GTI's Sochaux facility in eastern France next month, before resuming -- along with sales -- in October.

It's unlikely sales of the French rival for Volkswagen's Golf GTI will be affected in Australia, but local Peugeot importer Inchcape has yet to publicly comment.

To comply with the new regs, which for the first time take into account the WLTP real-world economy and emission standards, the 308 GTI's 200kW/330Nm 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine will need to have a new particulate filter fitted.

Peugeot is not the first car-maker to have to re-engineer existing engines to meet the new regulations.

Volkswagen added a similar filter to all its turbo-petrol models last year, while many other manufacturers are busy working on adapting their vehicles to meet the new emissions standards.

BMW announced recently that its high performance M3 sedan would be killed off early because the cost of the homologation process was deemed too high for a model nearing the end of its production life.

Luckily for Australian buyers, the emission legislation change will not affect supply Down Under, where the F80-gen M3 will continue to live on into early 2019 when it's replaced by an all-new model.