[Auto / Moto] New Peugeot 308: we transformed it into an RCZ coupe

[-_-Moltres-_-]

 

New Peugeot 308: it has been transformed into an RCZ coupé - It has been more than six years since the iconic Lion coupé left the catalog. Despite the success it met, regularly allowing itself to lead the Audi TT in terms of sales, at European level, Peugeot preferred not to follow up on this project . Badly in the early 2010s, the French manufacturer had other (big) fish to fry to save his skin, rather than developing a niche model. What's more, the global industry was also feeling the tide, given the growing disaffection with this type of architecture.. So much so that Audi today gives up offering offspring to its coupe, preferring to focus on the development of SUVs and on the electrification of its future models. Peugeot, despite its good commercial results, is also not inclined to resurrect the RCZ coupe. This is the reason why Auto-Moto has undertaken to revive it, in a virtual way , on the occasion of the revelation of the new generation of 308

 

 

Remember, in 2007, Peugeot unveiled the replacement for the 307, logically named 308, a compact that looks like a “minivan” which was not really predestined to turn into a coupe. However, a few months after its revelation, it created the event at the Frankfurt Motor Show by lifting the veil on the 308 RCZ concept , unanimously praised for its style. Three years later, finally giving up the patronymic 308, the RCZ coupe materialized in the street, until almost 68,000 copies were sold in the space of 5 years. Rather weak in performance (200 hp max) , it was not until the very end of his career that he adopted a cavalry at the height of his rank, via the exciting R version of 270 hp

 

 

Other times, other manners. In 2021, the new Peugeot 308, despite the dynamism it shows, refuses any sporting career . She who has just buried the previous generation of GTi, plans even less to turn into a coupe. By 2022, it will prefer to give birth to an SUV cut to cut croupiers to the Renault Arkana , and focus on plug-in hybrid engines to offer acceptable performance . But, whether in sedan or SUV, the new 308 will ignore the PSE (Peugeot Sport Engineered) version so much hoped for after the launch of the 508 of the same name.

 

 

An avalanche of bad news which did not prevent Auto-Moto from imagining what could look like a second generation of RCZ coupe , in particular by grafting a dented glass roof to the new 308. Certainly, such a project would be useful. allure , but Carlos Tavarès, at the head of the Stellantis group, could not give it the green light, so much environmental issues obsess the automotive industry in 2021. All that remains is the pleasure of the eyes ...