Peugeot is pondering how it can still be faithful to its performance car legacy in a world of pure-electric cars in the near future.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson explained that the French marque is debating how it can instil the sporty image it has traditionally been known for into its future electric cars.
“We are absolutely a sporty brand and intend to remain so because it’s in our DNA,” she said.
“If we want to retain the DNA of Peugeot, we have to find a way to give driving pleasure. Everybody remembers the 205 GTi and why was it so popular? Because it was fun to drive and that’s what we need to hold onto.”
Jackson admitted the brand, which is part of the mammoth Stellantis empire, currently doesn’t have the answer to how electric cars in the future can uphold the firm’s sporting legacy.
“A Peugeot is all about the pleasure of driving – this is so, very, very important. But then there’s the question that we are reflecting on and that is how do you give this pleasure of driving to electric cars? To be honest with you I haven’t got the answer yet, but we are thinking about it.”
She added: “We’ve got PSE (Peugeot Sport Engineered) currently, but that’s about performance and driving pleasure – we need to find a way that combines driving pleasure with electric.
“Everybody says, ‘oh yeah, but driving electric cars is not like driving a Peugeot 205 GTi’. But, from memory, that car had 130bhp and did 0-62mph in around 6.5 seconds – the current e-208 [electric supermini] has 154bhp. So, we need to find out what performance is [in the electric era].”
Jackson was speaking to PA at this month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race where Peugeot fielded two of its 9X8 hypercars in the top tier, battling with the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Lamborghini and Cadillac for class honours.
Peugeot’s sporting production models have traditionally been linked to its endeavours in motorsport, but it currently only has the 508 PSE saloon and estate models in its range that link to its racing activities.
The firm was expected to roll-out its high-performance PSE sub-brand to a wide range of models, but has so far been cautious to proceed with this plan.
Earlier this year, Peugeot confirmed it will work with its Peugeot Sport division on a range of performance models in the future, as the firm intends to only offer pure-electric cars in Europe from 2030 onwards.
