Peugeot will reveal two “striking” new concept cars at the Paris motor show in October, as a preview of the design language and technology that will define its future production cars.
Speaking to European journalists today (7 July), Peugeot CEO Alain Favey confirmed the unveilings and said the show cars will “show a lot about the future of the Peugeot brand”.
He declined to give further details at this early stage but said they will “show the way” for the evolution of Peugeot’s design language and take influence from the brand’s long history.
“Our heritage is very important to us, but it’s important in the sense that it gives us ideas for the future, which we will express again at the Paris motor show,” he said.
Peugeot has drawn from its past for several concepts in recent years – including the E-Legend, which was effectively a modern recreation of the 1960s 504 coupé, and the more recent Polygon, which previews the next e-208 and takes heavy influence from the legendary 205 hatchback.
Favey also confirmed that Peugeot won’t use its home motor show to unwrap the new e-208, as had been widely speculated. The second-generation supermini will be launched in the second half of next year and make its debut at a dedicated event shortly beforehand.
Peugeot’s new concept cars will give an indication of how it will completely overhaul its model line-up with a view to significantly increasing its market footprint.
It aims to sell 1.5 million cars annually worldwide by 2030, up from 1.1m last year, and will launch seven new models – mostly new generations of existing model lines – in the next four years to support that ambition.
Those seven models are the new e-208, the next-generation 308 hatchback, a trio of C-segment models produced in France and a pair of D-segment flagship models engineered with China’s Dongfeng and not planned for sale in Europe.
It’s possible that the new concept cars could directly preview some of these upcoming models. However, some Peugeot concepts in previous years – including the Inception, Onyx and Instinct – have been pure future-looking concepts with no plans for production.