Despite abandoning plans to re-launch the brand in North America, Peugeot chose CES in Las Vegas to reveal a concept car that hints how its next generation of electric sedans and SUVs will look starting in 2025. The Inception takes the form of a futuristic four-seat sedan that rides on the new Stellantis STLA Large EV platform. Visually, there’s a clear connection to the 2018 e-Legend concept, but this time the overt retro references to past Peugeots are mostly stripped away to create something more forward looking.
Not that it’s totally devoid of classic
and current Peugeot design cues. The hood line that sweeps up and back over the
headlights tips a hat to the brand’s cars of the 1970s and early 1980s, but
this time those lights are LEDs and the grille connecting them is a huge glass
panel. The wheels are similar to the rims fitted to the new 408 sedan, though
now feature horizon-levelling illuminated Lion emblems, and the rear panel –
digital, again, like the one at the front – features the same cat’s claw light
motif familiar to current Peugeot owners. But the most striking exterior
element is the huge windshield that plunges down from the roof panel towards
the nose and right through the space where the hood would be in a conventional
sedan. Riffing on the design of the company’s 1988 Oxia supercar, it cleverly
blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior design, putting the focus on
the cabin volume when viewed from above, yet when seen in profile, the
Inception looks like a typically sporty coupe or sedan.
We’ll have to wait to see if the crazy
glazing and the Tech Bar in the door that displays messages to the approaching
driver make it to production, but Peugeot is adamant that the concept’s blend
of athletic curves, crisper lines and square shoulders that step out beyond the
side windows will be present on future cars. The Inception’s whacky interior
features however, are still some way off from being showroom-ready. Conceived
as a replacement for Peugeot’s influential i-Cockpit interior, its focal point
is the Hypersquare, a rectangular steering wheel inspired by video games
controllers that combines a center-mounted tablet and four thumb-operated
control rings, and which Peugeot promises will be fitted to a real car by the
end of this decade.
The wheel is connected to the front axle
via steer-by-wire tech and can fold away into the dashboard when the car’s
Level 4 autonomous function is activated, while the instrument panel behind it
is an unusual circular screen Peugeot calls the Halo Cluster. And that’s pretty
much your lot as far as a dashboard is concerned, though metallic-look velvet
upholstery covering seats that adapt to fit the shape of the driver and
passengers should mean it still feels welcoming and suitably luxurious.
As for what’s under the skin, well, it’s a
concept car, so it’s probably powered by the motor from a leaf blower, but
Peugeot says its theoretical bi-motor, all-wheel drive setup can deliver up to
671 hp and send the 5 m sedan to 100 km/h in less
than 3 seconds. Induction charging removes the need for cables, but hooked up
to a suitably fast charger the 800-volt architecture can add 30 km of range in 5 minutes should you exhaust the 800 km range provided
by the 100 kWh battery.