- These two concept cars are sharply styled, with smooth surfaces broken apart by crisp lines.
- The RCZ Vision revives the name of the brand’s last sports car, and rides on an electric powertrain with a solid-state battery and a 1000-volt architecture.
- The E-T16 previews the design of the next-generation e-208 and pays tribute to the car that won the World Rally Championship in 1984 and 1985.
Stellantis burst into this year’s Paris auto show with a bevy of concept cars, from the teensy, retro-tinged Citroën 2CV to the voluptuous Alfa Romeo Cuorerosso. But two of the most striking concepts came from French brand Peugeot: the RCZ Vision and E-T16 concepts.
RCZ Vision concept.
The RCZ Vision brings back the name of Peugeot’s sporty coupe from the 2010s and has a low, sleek two-door silhouette. It wears the brand’s “Feline Future” design language, characterized by a trio of lines slashed across the front fascia that comprised the headlights, echoed by the same look at the rear with the taillights. The surfacing is smooth, and the glass roof has a double-bubble look.
The cabin is radical, with a dashboard that looks like it’s floating in the digital realm thanks to transparent, frameless glass screens. The center display can be turned off completely, rendering it nearly invisible, for a more focused driving experience. Peugeot calls the wacky-looking steering wheel the “Hypersquare.” Every important function can be accessed within the four rings, meaning that drivers never have to take their hands off the wheel. The Hypersquare will reach production in this form in the next-generation e-208.
The RCZ Vision rides on the STLA One platform—set to underpin other future Stellantis products such as the Chrysler Airflow and Dodge GLH—and uses a solid-state battery with a 1000-volt electrical architecture, which can charge from 10 to 80 percent in just 10 minutes. The powertrain cranks out 500 horsepower, while the range is around 372 miles, and the RCZ features steer-by-wire with an adaptive steering ratio that changes depending on the vehicle’s speed and brake-by-wire technology.
E-T16 concept.
The E-T16 concept harkens back even further, as a modern reinterpretation of the 205 T16 that claimed back-to-back World Rally Championships in 1985 and 1986. The E-T16 mimics that legendary race car in its proportions but wears the same Feline Future face as the RCZ, with the claw-mark headlights tinted yellow. The bodywork is festooned with vents and intakes, along with red accents that include a thin belt that wraps around the hatch. At the rear, there’s a sizable diffuser and a pair of small wings hanging off the tailgate.
Inside, the E-T16 also features the Hypersquare, but it lives inside a dark and ominous environment with black trimmings and glowing red lights. The steering wheel features a central display here, paired with a long, curved 21-inch screen on the dashboard, and the bucket seats are wrapped in a woven fabric and Pelinova recycled leather.
Underneath, a trio of electric motors, one up front and two at the rear, produce 816 horsepower and can blast to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds and 186 mph in just 16 seconds. Braking is handled by 15.0-inch discs, and there’s also a tall hydraulic handbrake inside. Peugeot also boasts of new “Side Cooling” tech that cools the battery through their side walls instead of their base. This brings increased performance, and the E-T16 is able to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife three times with no limit on power due to heat. While the E-T16 may not spawn an electric rally racer, Peugeot says that the styling will influence the next-generation E-208, and the performance claims are promising.
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Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan.