THE Peugeot e-Legend was one of the stars of the Paris Salon. Despite the technological commitment that it is — 100% electric, level 4 of autonomous driving and connected — its lines evoke the Peugeot 504 Coupé, an elegant coupé designed by Pininfarina.
The impact and success was such that there is already an online petition to produce it. In other words, could the e-Legend be a new Peugeot 508 Coupé?
The new Peugeot 508, by itself, visually approached the coupé — the lines are sportier, the roof has a more pronounced arch, and it even lost the door frames, allowing it to remove precious inches in height that in a lot contributes to this perception.
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Is there really a need for a pure retro looking coupé? Peugeot and e-Legend fans believe so, and now even the CEO of Peugeot, Jean-Philippe Imparato, upon learning of the petition, launched the challenge via twitter:
If we get to 500,000 we might really have to consider it… #PeugeotELegend @Autonews_frhttps://t.co/hNOzPlZn7w
— Jean-Philippe Imparato (@JPImparato) October 2, 2018
500 thousand signatures
It is the goal that Imparato has set. But we have to heed his words… If the petition reaches 500,000 signatures, they, Peugeot, are not committed to moving forward with the production of the e-Legend, but it will be seriously considered.At the moment, at the end of two weeks after the initial publication of the petition, 45,000 signatures have already been reached, far, far away from the half million proposed by Imparato.
What are the chances of the e-Legend being produced?
Considering the position of Carlos Tavares, the leader of Groupe PSA, who is totally focused on high-volume, high-profit models — that is, crossover and SUV —, we have many doubts that he would authorize something along the lines of a hypothetical e-Legend de production, no matter how many subscriptions there were — if they were pre-reservations, maybe the odds would be different...
Tavares had no problem finishing with the RCZ, the last coupé to bear the Peugeot symbol, curiously a model that was also born as a concept, having been extremely well received and would eventually reach the production line. The end of the RCZ was due to low sales volume, and a production e-Legend would certainly be a niche vehicle, with a business model difficult to justify.
But who knows? Hope is the last to die… So it doesn't hurt to try.
I want to see Peugeot e-Legend produced