Peugeot’s e-Legend: A Retro Car for the Future?

French car maker Peugeot has definitely not been at the forefront of electric mobility.  Although the company has been offering the the electric city car iOn, this has been nothing else than a low ambition trial balloon. But times are changing, and once Peugeot announced in April to start a new division exclusively dedicated to electric vehicles, now the first concepts are being presented. The Peugeot e-Legend shall be the vehicle bringing the French into the electric vehicle age. The car’s design is a homage to the coupé, which was created by legendary Italian design studio Pininfarina. The e-Legend certainly wows with its design, reminding us of American muscle cars such as the Dodge Challenger or the Ford Mustang. The concept car’s performance data are anticipated to be 600 kilometers of range thanks to its 100kWH battery pack, and an acceleration from 0 to 100 kmh in approximately 4 seconds. The car comes with all-wheel drivetrain of 340kW and 800Nm. The battery is expected to charge to 80 percent in 25 minutes. The car is 4.65 meters long, 1.93 meters broad and just 1.37 meters tall. A flatfish. All data is of course just assumed, the vehicle so far is just a concept car. The interior design is very spartan, with a focus on materials like velvet (“Hello 60s!) and digital experience. The steering wheel is retractable, due to the cars assumed autonomous driving feature. But that’s just assumption, as the French car makers have been lagging behind in self-driving technology. No doubt the car is very pretty with its retro-design. It will certainly be ultra-desirable, as Peugeot-CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato stated. But the question is, whether retro-designs really are the way to convince buyers of innovative technologies such as electric and autonomous driving? Especially, when new technologies grant us and even demand  new design options. We can only assume that this vehicle will never see the light of day of going into mass production. As soon as the French seriously start working on those new technologies, they will quickly realize that such a concept is nowhere near reality. The e-Legend resembles a beautiful bird that got a jetpack on its back to get on a mission to the Moon. Here is a video (in French) with more details on the interior and the functions. This article has also been published in German.