Peugeot will be bringing a mildly outrageous concept vehicle to next week’s 2017 Geneva Motor Show. It seems that French manufacturers are taking it upon themselves to create the wild, often innovative showcases that other automakers have shied away from recently.
The sleek blue Pug here is called the Instinct and it lays out the company’s vision for the future of connected, more intelligent cars, which is why it actually made an early stopover at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona en route to Switzerland.
The emphasis on technology is probably why, despite being as blue as blue can be, the Instinct’s design is actually rather restrained compared to what we know Peugeot is capable of should they want to wow the crowd on visuals alone - any added theatrics will only distract from tech on display.
Before we move on, though, we’d like to publicly express our excitement at Peugeot’s choice to have the Instinct shaped in a Shooting Brake body style, reminding us of the Volvo Concept Estate from 2014’s Geneva Motor Show.
As you may have already guessed, the Instinct is a car that can drive itself, and the idea surrounding it paints it as the continually connected device that will work actively to improve your life through the Internet of Things, which it integrates into via Samsung’s Artik Cloud IoT platform, explaining its appearance at MWC.
When not driving autonomously, it can still be used with a steering wheel and pedals like a normal car, but Peugeot is betting that the majority of time spent in the car will be done so while operating without driver intervention. Being connected to the devices around it, it can cater to the specific needs of its occupants without necessarily being instructed to.
For example, stepping into the car after a day at the office and it can promptly start driving relaxedly to the destination already specified in the driver’s calendar, perhaps even confirming the dinner reservation and making a detour to pick up the wife or girlfriend on the way.
Another scenario would be it sensing that, after an energetic workout or run (logged by an IoT-enabled fitness tracker), the car can prepare a cool and restful environment for when the driver returns.
All these projections for the future of the automobile are very interesting and inching closer to fruition each day, but aren’t novel by any measure any longer. Though, Peugeot’s decision to pour resources into a concept like the Instinct suggests a established roadmap firmly based in reality.
Besides all this, the Instinct is very much like a concept we expect to see from the French marque. It has the requisite sharply angled exterior, low aerodynamic body, and large wheels and convey a powerful and futuristic character, possibly even heralding some future design cues for their next showroom model.
Rather than being an static show car, they’ve even fleshed out the oily bits. The Instinct is a plug-in hybrid rather than a fully electric vehicle, the dual motor setup produces a combined output of 224kW, though it doesn’t specify any other metrics. We assume it’s the same turbocharged 1.6-litre Prince four-cylinder petrol engine under that bonnet, much like 308 HYbrid R concept (though that one produced somewhere around 373kW).
The interior, too, is properly futuristic. It’s accessed by rear hinged doors, revealing a grounded but fantastical take on their i-Cockpit layout that has most of its functions handled by screens and touch augmented controls. The steering wheel and foot pedals recede into the panelling when not in use and the seats are made from a special 3D mesh material that better conforms to the passenger’s body.
For more on Peugeot vehicles, including pricing and specifications, check out our Showroom.
