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Peugeot Exalt concept wears a revised look for its home crowd

The Paris Motor Show is Peugeot's big chance to show off its newest wares to the home crowd, and the company has a ton of vehicles on display at this year's exhibition. Unfortunately, the Exalt concept is one of the more lackluster of the bunch. With its long, low body, the sedan certainly isn't ugly. However, Peugeot already showed the Exalt at the Beijing Motor Show earlier this year, and it hasn't done too much to change it for the City of Light.
The latest evolution of the Exalt still wears a unique paint finish over much of its body, but the rear panels are now painted gray, instead of the contrasting red from Beijing. The interior for the Paris version is at least reupholstered to replace the previous light gray and dark wood with pinstripe fabric and a lighter shade of timber.
Under the hood, things are left the same with a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine sending 270 horsepower to the front wheels through a six-speed automatic. There's also an electric motor powering the rear axle for a total system output of 340 horsepower at a full gallop. Peugeot did make one small tweak for Paris by hiding a foldaway, electric scooter in the floor of the trunk. Scroll down to read all about this rehashed concept.

Peugeot 208 Hybrid Air 2L returns 141 Euro mpg, doesn't look like a Cactus [w/video]

One of the more intriguing automotive technologies on the market is PSA's Hybrid Air drivetrain, which is being shown rather prominently at the 2014 Paris Motor Show in both the Citroën C4 Cactus Airflow 2L and in this, the Peugeot 208 Hybrid Air 2L.
The gist of the Hybrid Air system is this: rather than mate a gas-powered engine with an electric motor and battery pack, the 208 Hybrid Air 2L uses a compressed air tank underneath the trunk, a low-pressure tank near the rear axle and a hydraulic system in the engine bay.
In the 208 Hybrid Air 2L, that compressed-air system is paired with a 1.2-liter, three-cylinder engine. So equipped, this particular "tech demonstrator" can run on any combination of power sources, including in a zero-emissions, compressed-air-only mode. Like the C4 Cactus Airflow 2L, the result of this powertrain is impressive, with the 208's fuel consumption ringing up at just 2.0 liters per 100 kilometers of travel, or about 117 US miles per gallon (equal to the C4 Concept's 141 European mpg).

Peugeot 308 GT spices up the French Focus fighter

In the face of hot five-door hatches like the Ford Focus ST, Volkswagen Golf R and Renault Megane GT 220 (to say nothing of the Renaultsport Megane), it's high time that French manufacturer Peugeot added some life to its C-segment entry, the 308.
This is the 308 GT, and while it won't pose a threat to hotter models like the Focus ST or Golf R, the availability of gas, diesel, five-door-hatch and station wagon varieties should prove appealing to a wider range of customers than the aforementioned challengers.
That gas mill is already pretty familiar to both American and European consumers, as it's been found in a number of Mini products (not to mention a wide array of vehicles from PSA). The 1.6-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder packs 202 horsepower in this particular Pug, while 210 pound-feet of torque are dispatched to the front wheels courtesy of a six-speed automatic or a six-speed manual. The turbodiesel offering, meanwhile, displaces 2.0 liters and returns 177 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque.

Peugeot Quartz concept hides a 500-hp hybrid under its rocky exterior

Peugeot is going through a bit of a rough patch recently with Dongfeng and the French government coming to its rescue earlier this year. For the 2014 Paris Motor Show, the company is bringing out everything it can to show strength to the home market. Among the automaker's concepts this year is the high-performance Quartz that imagines a very tough crossover.
True to its rocky name, the Quartz looks chiseled from a block of stone with sharp, angular lines covering the whole body. Up front, its LED headlights are recessed behind the hood's overhang to lend a menacing demeanor, and the louvers in the side of the hood take the angry appearance even further. It also rides on some seriously weird 23-inch wheels with composite flaps to direct airflow.
Underneath the long hood is Peugeot's 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 270 horsepower and a six-speed automatic. However, the setup is augmented with an electric motor hooked up to each axle boosting total system output to 500 hp. Alternatively for a greener drive, the Quartz can drive 31 miles on an electric charge.

Peugeot Quartz Concept is sinister 500-hp hybrid crossover

The Peugeot family might be going back to their pepper mill business since losing a big stake in the company, but the automaker itself is still hard at work with a new concept for the Paris Motor Show. Its latest creation is the Peugeot Quartz that imagines a high-performance CUV with a 500-horsepower, hybrid drivetrain on tap.
To move this sporty-looking CUV, Peugeot fits it with the company's 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 270 hp and 243 pound-feet of torque with a six-speed automatic, then augments that with two electric motors that each produce 114 hp (85 kilowatts) to directly drive the front and rear axles. The automaker claims that the Quartz could go 31 miles on a purely electric charge. However in Race mode things get really interesting, and all three power units work together to motivate the concept.
With its long hood and sloping roof, the Quartz looks like a sports coupe that lifts weights. Its 23-inch wheels have composite flaps to direct airflow, and look massive. Up front, the concept is all business with a mesh grille and arching LED headlights. The subtle louvers hidden in the sides of the hood-bulge are an especially neat styling trick. Moving back from there, the red accents on the flanks actually disguise extending steps into the cabin.

Peugeot heirs go back to the grind after losing automaking business

The Peugeot family has long been the largest shareholder in the company that bears its name. But PSA Peugeot Citroën - one of Europe's largest automakers - recently launched a capital campaign that saw it sell large chunks of shares to overseas investors, decreasing the Peugeot family's stake from 25.5 percent to 14.1 percent. The move meant that the Peugeots are no longer in control of Peugeot SA (PSA), so now they're looking to other interests. Like pepper grinders.
If you've ever traveled to Europe, you may have seen a Peugeot pepper grinder on the tables of finer restaurants. The Peugeot family started out making pepper grinders, coffee mills and bicycles in the early 1800s before it got into the car business, but like Volvo cars (which is owned separately from Volvo trucks) or Husqvarna motorcycles (which has nothing to do with the home appliance and power tools operations of the same name), the Peugeot pepper-grinder business has nothing to do with the automaker.
The family recently began diversifying its assets and this past June regained control of PSP Peugeot SAS, the company that makes the grinders. Now that the carmaking business is out of its hands, the family is putting its nose back to the grindstone and focusing on the peppermill operation.

Peugeot warms things up with new 308 GT

Peugeot chose wisely when it got back into the hot-hatch game. Instead of going after the big boys, it went small with the 208 GTI, which arrived around the same time as the latest Renaultsport Clio. Where Renault went with a crowd-pleasing five doors and a dual-clutch gearbox, Peugeot went old-school with three doors and a stick shift. Bolstered by positive reviews, Peugeot's been widely expected to apply a similar formula to the larger 308, but instead of going for Golf R territory, it's guardedly going after the GTI instead.
The new 308 flagship model packs a 1.6-liter turbo four - the same engine in the 208 GTI, not to mention a host of other PSA and Mini models - but with a touch more output, now up to 202 horsepower and 210 pound-feet of torque, driven to the front wheels through a six-speed manual transmission to send the 308 GT to 62 in 7.5 seconds (lamentably a full second off the pace of the VW GTI). It also gets a retuned and lowered suspension, upgraded brakes and rolling stock and sportier trim, but that's not the end of the story.
In addition to the five-door hatchback, Peugeot is also offering the 308 GT in wagon form, just like the Ford Focus ST. It's also offering a diesel option with a six-speed automatic. The 2.0-liter turbodiesel four packs 177 hp and 295 lb-ft, roughly comparable to the Golf GTD and new diesel Focus ST.

Peugeot reskins Exalt concept for Paris

It used to be that a concept car would make its big show debut, then maybe make the rounds of some smaller local shows and subsequently disappear. But recently automakers have been giving their show cars a new lease on life. Lexus did just that with the LF-LC concept, introducing it in red at the Detroit Auto Show and then repainting it blue for Sydney. Subaru has taken a similar approach with its Viziv concept, much as Mini did with the Rocketman. And now Peugeot is following suit with its Exalt concept.
First revealed at the Beijing Motor Show a few months back, the Exalt is a svelte four-door coupe concept encompassing innovative approaches to both construction materials and powertrain. Now it's coming home to roost for the Paris Motor Show next month, and has put on a fresh face for the trip.
The original featured a red "shark skin" rear end that gave the Exalt a two-tone finish in contrast with the hand-beaten bare metal bodywork fore of the rear wheels and pillars. For the Paris show, however, Peugeot has given the concept a new grey rear end. It's also redone the recycled newsprint interior from the original light grey with dark wood to a dark fabric with light wood trim.

Peugeot details 2008 DKR with 340-hp diesel [w/video]

It would be all too easy to write off Peugeot Sport these days. The French automaker's competition division, once run by FIA president Jean Todt (before he was head of Ferrari), hasn't competed in Formula One in 14 years, in the World Rally Championship in nearly a decade, and shut down its Le Mans Prototype program - the only one to really challenge Audi in the modern era - two years ago.
Peugeot is still racing, though - it's just selecting individual events instead of entire seasons in one series or another. It conquered Pikes Peak last year with Sébastien Loeb and posted the top time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with the same car and driver just last weekend. And next year, it will take on the famously grueling Dakar Rally with the 2008 DKR.
The French outfit announced the new off-road racer in March and revealed it in April, but it kept the key technical details a secret until now. As development progresses, Peugeot has revealed that the 2008 DKR packs a twin-turbodiesel V6 mounted amidships and driving 340 horsepower to only two wheels (presumably the rear ones) instead of all four.

Sebastien Loeb tops Goodwood but misses record

Heading into the Goodwood Festival of Speed this past weekend, insiders speculated that we'd have a new top time on our hands. The record for the English hill climb course has stood at 41.6 seconds since 1999 when Nick Heidfeld drove the McLaren MP4/13, but expectations were high that nine-time World Rally Championship superstar Sébastien Loeb would pilot his Peugeot 208 T16 - the same in which he set the record time at Pikes Peak last year - to knock Heidfeld and McLaren off the top of the leader board.
Well, Loeb did dominate the proceedings on Sunday, besting some serious machinery including a specially prepared Maserati MC12 (piloted by GT1 champ Michael Bartels), a McLaren F1 GTR Long-Tail (driven by former Indy champ Kenny Brack) and a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 (by Jann Mardenborough, who had just won the Supercar run on Saturday). But while the Peugeot hill-climber may have a power-to-weight ratio to rival that of a modern F1 car and even more aggressive aero, Loeb's top time of 44.6 seconds wasn't enough to pip Heidfeld's record.
In fact it wasn't enough to land him in second place, either. Justin Law drove the Jaguar XJR8/9 up the hill in 44.19 seconds in 2008 and returned with a 44.4-second run the following year. You can bet that Loeb will be back at Goodwood again next summer, though, to try and find the extra three seconds needed to take the record, or at least an extra few tenths to land in second behind one of the fastest and most successful F1 cars ever made - a machine that won of nine out of sixteen races and both titles in the 2008 Formula One World Championship.