Shanghai Show 2011 Highlights: Peugeot SxC Concept

This dramatic-looking Peugeot SxC concept is the firm's star for the Shanghai show - and it’s been designed and developed entirely by the firm’s Chinese technical centre.

The SxC concept is a jumbo SUV - although its name (Shanghai Cross Concept) indicates that the firm regards it as a crossover. It’s 4.87m long, 1.61m high and 2.035m wide; that’s a little longer, lower and wider than a Porsche Cayenne. It features reverse-hinged ‘suicide’ rear doors and sits on 22in wheels.

The car has been designed at Peugeot’s tech centre in Shanghai, but under the direction of the firm’s design chief Gilles Vidal. It has a development of the front-end styling previously showcased on the SR1, BB1 and EX1 concepts, with Peugeot’s new badging, what the firm calls “feline headlights”, and heavily textured surfaces.

The cabin blends leather and brushed aluminium finishes with blue LED lighting. It’s a strict four-seater.

The show car is powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine, developing 218bhp and driving the front wheels. But it’s mated to Peugeot’s Hybrid4 technology, which adds an electric motor at the rear axle to give a combined output of 313bhp in a four-wheel-drive layout.

The Hybrid4 system also allows the SxC to run in electric-only mode at low speeds. Peugeot claims the car would return combined fuel economy of 48.7mpg and CO2 emissions of 143g/km.

Peugeot hasn’t announced any production plans for the car. But it has acknowledged that it will launch “at least one new model per year” in China for the foreseeable future, and that the developing line-up is likely to include a large off-roader.

Thanks to: Autocar