New Peugeot era takes shape

Striking-looking concept sets out radical path for future design and technology.

- FELIX PAGE

The extraordinary new Inception concept "heralds a new era" for future Peugeot electric cars, which will make dramatic technological leaps and feature radically different designs from the company's current offering.

Revealed at CES in Las Vegas - unusually for Peugeot, which left the US market in 1991-the Inception is the first concept from recently appointed design boss Matthias Hossann and provides a mission statement for the brand's future production vehicles. The firm will launch five new EVs in the next two years and go all-electric by 2030 in Europe.

Hossann told Autocar recently that upcoming Peugeot cars will take the lead from the new 408 saloon-SUV in "challenging conventional silhouettes".

Certainly, the Inception bears no obvious relation to anything in the current Peugeot stable. Sitting low to the ground (its roof stands just 1340mm tall) and with a sharp, fastback style silhouette, it is closest in form to the current 508 saloon but is substantially larger, measuring 5000mm long and 2100mm wide.