11:31 am, June 26, 2024
Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson has told Car Dealer that the French marque intends to remain a sporty brand, despite not yet deciding how this vision fits with its increasingly electrified future.
Speaking at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, where Peugeot fielded two of its 9X8 hypercars and placed 11th and 12th overall, Jackson explained that the French marque is still deciding 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.’
Peugeot at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024 (Matt Howell/Peugeot)
Despite Peugeot’s involvement with endurance racing, as well as its history with rallying and other motor sports, it currently only offers the 508 PSE (Peugeot Sport Engineered) saloon and estate models in its line-up that link to its racing activities.
‘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.’
‘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].’
Like many other brands in the wider Stellantis Group portfolio, Peugeot has committed to offering a pure electric line-up by 2030, revealing new electric versions of its 3008 and 5008 SUVs last year and committing to offering an EV model of every car it sells by 2025.
The firm was also 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.
‘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,’ Jackson added.
