FRENCH FLAIR GETS MUDDY

Peugeot re-enters the pickup space, but can it be more than niche?

- Pawan Dhingara

Pick any sales month and out of the top ten performing vehicles, three will be pickups. Look a little further down that list you’ll also see newcomers like the GWM P Series and Mahindra Scorpio putting up a brave fight too. So if you’re an automaker with an interest in taking a slice of the market share, the data is simply too hard to ignore. Peugeot obviously agrees…

However, it’s a tough segment to disrupt. Allegiances are strong, communities are knowledgeable, and take a hard, skeptical view of anything new. In order to claw one’s way in, the product needs to arrive with higher specifications at a fairly decent price, while ensuring that the workmanlike fundamentals like power outputs, cabin derivatives, and towing capacity mirror their rivals. Still, even as a niche product, Peugeot believes it can double its sales volume globally.

A Peugeot pickup might resonate with a small crowd although the long hiatus has left those halcyon memories a little stale. Quiz the younger generation about Peugeot’s model offering and you’re likely to hear nameplates like 208, 3008, and 2008, long before the 404 Wagon and 504 Pickup enter their vocabulary. As such, it’s rather optimistic that Peugeot’s past is going to influence one’s decision to buy a Landtrek in the year 2022, and most reacted as though this was Peugeot’s first foray into the segment.

As far as pickup faces go, this one looks like it enjoys a French café and fresh baguettes as well as a mud bath and boerewors roll, thanks to upmarket details around the slim LED lights and badge, as well a chrome nudge bar and side steps. All this before the styling shoots down a wrong turn with the clunky and offensively sized door handles.