- Don’t expect Peugeot to follow Renault’s recent moves in reviving old designs.
- Last year’s Inception concept previews the brand’s future design language.
Peugeot doesn’t have any interest in following the competition’s recent love for retro designs. Instead, the French carmaker wants to make its cars look futuristic while still remembering its history.
One of Peugeot’s most dramatic concepts launched in recent years was the E-Legend Concept, unveiled back in 2018 with a design inspired by the iconic 504. Despite the positive reception to that concept, it hasn’t influenced the designs of road-going Peugeot models, and according to the firm’s head of design, Matthias Hossann, Peugeot doesn’t need to go retro.
Read: Peugeot Inception Concept Is A 671-HP EV With Video Game Steering
“I think sometimes it’s good to do retro design when you have to relaunch a brand, because it creates a kind of highlight for the brand at some point. I think that is not really the case, for the moment, at Peugeot,” he told Autocar.
The Peugeot Inception Concept unveiled in 2023 previews the brand’s future design direction. The concept is a dramatic four-door sedan based on the Stellantis STLA Large EV platform and features elements that recall the brand’s past, including the large windshield that stretches much further forward than a normal sedan. It also has styling cues inspired by current Peugeot models, including the cat claw lights up front.
“What we are showing today, for example, with the Inception is that Peugeot is one of the oldest car brands in the world, in fact, but at the same time, we are really future- and forward-looking,” Hossann described.
“When we design a Peugeot as a team, we say ‘let’s really invent the future’, but at the same time, we have some solid foundations. We have a fantastic history. So, I’m not saying that we’ll never look into our history – and the E-Legend is a perfect example – but at the same time, how can we twist it into something which, in the end, is really futuristic, you know? I think this is the main challenge.”
Do you think Peugeot is going in the right direction with the Inception, or should it go more retro as it did with the E-Legend Concept?
