Peugeot’s booth hosted the world premiere of one of the best looking new introductions at the Beijing Auto Show, the Exalt sports sedan concept with a shark-like face and rear skin treatment.

If you’re wondering what that last part means, the Exalt continues Peugeot’s recurring concept theme of incorporating different materials on the bodies of its concept models, just like it did with Onyx supercar concept from two years ago.

In the case of the Exalt, Peugeot’s designers combined bare metal with a textured, man-made material that mimics the look and feel of a shark’s skin, which the French firm claims, “contributes towards aerodynamic performance – with an SCx of 0.6”, without explaining how.

The beautifully penned sedan is around 4.7 meters (185 inches) long, but only 1.31 meters (51.6 inches) tall, tipping the scales at 1,700kg (3,748 pounds), with power coming from Peugeot’s plug-in HYbrid4 drive train that links a 270bhp 1.6-liter THP turbocharged gasoline four to a 50kW electric motor, with a combined system output of 340bhp. The gasoline unit drives the front wheels through a six-speed automatic, with the electric motor placed on multi-link rear axle.

“PEUGEOT EXALT is athletic, powerful and sleek, incorporating original materials,” said Peugeot designer Pierre Paul Mattei. “Its cabin, trimmed in natural materials, is dedicated to comfort and instinctive driving. This innovative concept makes the saloon even more attractive and more versatile, in particular the boot with its unique opening mechanism exposing a large boot.”

While there are no specific plans for a production version of the Exalt, Peugeot’s brass said that it could inspire a large sedan for the Chinese market in the future.

By John Halas

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