They went horseback. Peugeot e-Legend
This time, the Peugeot brand did without loud presentations at its home salon, where journalists, it must be admitted, are often driven away by force. Meanwhile, it was Peugeot from the entire bush of French brands that performed at the Paris Motor Show more successfully than the rest. On the one hand, demonstrating a practical 508 SW wagon, which, according to the company’s managers, will account for 60% of model sales in Europe. On the other hand, showing the retroconcept e-Legend, which, according to our observations, has become the most popular car in the cabin among all the “French”. And so that the visitors did not miss, they did not get lost in the large pavilion and certainly found e-Legend, the big lion pointed the way to the new product.
The retro theme in concepts, of course, is not new, but artists do not often turn to a specific model of the brand. In this case, according to Peugeot designers, Peugeot 504, produced for an unreasonable length of almost 40 years, became a source of inspiration, which is an undoubted record for an average size class car.
Meanwhile, not all journalists identified 504 in the e-Legend, at least because Peugeot artists were inspired by not prosaic sedans, but by a much more interesting coupe, which designers Pininfarina conjured at one time.
This very coupe 504, as it turned out, the majority of current journalists do not remember. We arranged an impromptu poll and found out that the majority of sharks have e-Legend caused associations … with the first generation Ford Mustang!
Interestingly, the proportions of the coupe 504 and the Mustang are different, although the body type is close. It turned out that all were confused by the rear three-section lanterns, which migrate on Mustangs from generation to generation and have already become supposedly its exclusive omen. Meanwhile, the coupe 504 lanterns were exactly the same in shape!
The retro concept of e-Legend is remarkable not only for its appearance. Peugeot CEO Jean-Louis Impparato, without hesitation, announced the car “high-tech manifesto”. Of course, the new e-Legend is electric, without it, nowhere, but its technical characteristics do not pull on high technology. The capacity of the high-voltage battery is 100 kWh, like the current Tesla, which, by the way, was also presented in Paris, but was not in demand among journalists. Acceleration from the spot to the “hundred” – in less than 4 seconds, and the “maximum speed” – 220 km / h.
The power reserve has already been estimated by the hard WLTP cycle, which replaced the NEDC, and “measured” 600 km. Well, this is comparable to traditional cars. It is a pity that they did not say anything about the charging time.
Here, for example, the president of the Renault-Nissan concern, PSA, Carlos Ghosn, on the eve of the opening of the Paris Motor Show, promised to reduce it to 6-7 minutes. If Peugeot engineers would have taken the liberty to state such an indicator at least for a concept – there would be talk … In Peugeot, while they promised more modest numbers: it will be possible to collect electricity into a battery for a power reserve of 500 km in 25 minutes. Long!
It is clear that even the retroconcept should now be autonomous, but Peugeot engineers still offered a compromise: if you want, drive the car yourself – that’s the steering wheel, and if you’re tired, watch TV. At the touch of a button, the steering wheel retracts into a niche, and the chair is put into comfort mode …
What’s next?
Naturally, there is no talk about production and sales. However, PSA, aimed mainly at the European market, is an image electric car. And, judging by the very bold design experiments of Peugeot lately, no one would be surprised if the production car turns out to be stylistically very close to the concept car.
