A business proposal: Peugeot's 508 RXH The flighty thoroughbreds at Manor House Stables, the Cheshire training yard partly owned by Manchester United star Michael Owen, didn't turn a hair when I drove past them in the new Peugeot 508 RXH. They just gazed placidly as the big car drove silently along the concrete walkway dividing the rows of stalls. This odd exercise had been staged to show how quietly the hybrid will move when powered only by its electric motor. Intriguing as it was to see Wayne and Coleen Rooney's colt Switcharooney, everyone knows that electric cars are so quiet they are unlikely to scare the horses. The Vauxhall Ampera even has a muted horn button that emits a "courtesy beep," to let pedestrians and riders know it is coming. What we didn't know before the launch of the 508 RXH was whether or not a diesel/electric hybrid set-up could work in a large luxury vehicle. The answer is yes, pretty much, especially for business customers. For those buying big luxury cars face a Grand National of tax obstacles, including vehicle excise duty, benefit-in-kind taxation and employee national insurance contributions. Add fuel costs and congestion charging, and it is clear that the only people who can afford to run a big, conventionally powered car are those whose firms can pick up the costs. The diesel hybrid 508 RXH, powered by the same 2.0-litre diesel engine and electric motor as the Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4 and Citroën's DS5, clears nearly all the hurdles. Low fuel costs, low emissions and low benefit-in-kind ratings will save business users thousands of pounds a year, and firms can offset 100 per cent write-down allowance of the purchase price against tax in the first year after purchase. So it seems an obvious choice for executives, compared with vehicles such as Audi's A6 Allroad, which it closely resembles. Reinforced undersides, wheel arches and sills, and raked roof and tapering tail surely make it rival the Prince of Wales's favourite automotive popsy. The 508 RXH is an urbane estate car of limited carrying capacity that can also be moderately handy off-road. The Audi's Quattro system has permanent four-wheel drive; the Peugeot switches into 4x4 via a knob by the gear selector. Neither car would be much cop in the Hindu Kush but both could, as the RXH proved, keep up with a racehorse - if driven on slimy grass beside the gallops. The A6 Allroad probably costs more than £50,000 fully kitted out. The Peugot is loaded with goodies as standard and costs £33,695. Its driving dynamics are mediocre; the automatic gearbox shunts painfully when you put your foot down. The 508 RXH's claimed average fuel consumption of almost 70mpg would more than make up for those deficiencies - if it were entirely believable. Driving normally, we achieved 38.6mpg; to be told that our driving must have been at fault and that we were on the wrong kind of roads, in the wrong type of traffic. Even Switcharooney might have blinked in disbelief at such lame excuses.