Hossann said: “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.
“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.”
Hossann said exclusively nostalgic design cues can be “a danger for a brand” and that it is important for Peugeot to show it “can always reinvent” itself.
“The challengers for the future will be those brands that maybe do not exist today, so can we really reinvent, on a daily basis, our brand, by keeping this strong foundation which is our story?
“It’s always a nice balance between playing with history but always looking into the future,” he said.
Designing cars according to these principles is crucial to cementing and promoting Peugeot’s identity as it faces off with a wave of newcomer brands who don’t have the same heritage and recognisability to lean on.
“We have tried, for some years, to make a Peugeot be recognisable from 200 metres away”, said Hossann, who points to the ‘feline attitude’ of Peugeot’s current design language as a key differentiator from its rivals.