This is without a doubt the star vehicle of this 2018 Paris Motor Show: the E-Legend concept car from Peugeot, a daring proposal for an electric vehicle with a retro silhouette, unveiled on September 20th. Even before the show opens its doors to the public, the Lion brand has been able to test the appetite of consumers, through the reactions on social networks … And they are more than positive.
“On this concept, we have had unprecedented returns since the brand exists,” enthuses Jean-Philippe Imparato, CEO of Peugeot. A petition was even launched on September 29 by the website Autonews.fr for Peugeot to market this vehicle. Wednesday, October 3, the bar of 10,000 signatures has been crossed. Peugeot has fun on Twitter.
Sufficient to convince Peugeot to produce this electric coupe, evocation of the 504? “It’s a realistic proposition, we could produce it, which does not mean we’ll do it, it’s playable,” explains Peugeot’s CEO. To support this hypothesis, remember that Peugeot has converted the RCZ concept car (a small coupe based on 308), presented at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show, as a series model two years later. It has sold nearly 70,000 copies in six years of career. Not bad for a niche model, in the midst of the global economic crisis!
References, but not nostalgia
For now, E-Legend carries a message: Peugeot does not want to compromise on the design for its future electric vehicles. “We do not want the electrical future to be boring or anxious, so we chose to draw from our history the codes that make the brand look general, for which we are recognized – the quality of the design – and to associate technological content (connectivity, autonomy) French craft “, summarizes the CEO of Peugeot. Hence a design that is reminiscent of the DNA of the brand but does not want to be nostalgic, according to the head of the style of Peugeot Gilles Vidal. “We can recognize the architecture of the 504 but there is not a single style code of the 504, except the color,” said Jean-Philippe Imparato.
Peugeot is not the only one on this Mondial to use the design and references known to pass the pill of the electric: Mercedes also try it with his Vision EQ Silver Arrow, and Renault has slipped references to his three founding brothers in the EZ-Ultimo concept … The electric future has a taste of the past.