Peugeot Brings the RCZ Back as a Four-Seat Coupé Concept

Peugeot has brought back the RCZ name, but not as a retro tribute. The sharp-edged electric coupé concept sits at the centre of the brand's Paris motor show stand, and it is meant to show where Peugeot's styling is heading. It is also the first of the brand's futuristic concepts that could realistically make it to customers.

The original RCZ was a 2+2 with a rear bench that offered little real room for passengers. This version is a proper four-seater, with enough head and leg room in the back to make it usable every day. At 4.65m long, 1.35m high and 1.94m wide, it is close in size to the BMW 4 Series coupé, and that is the rival Peugeot has in mind. Chief designer Matthias Hossann says there are very few four-seat coupés left from upper mainstream brands, and he thinks that gap is worth filling.

Hossann has framed the car as a realistic preview rather than a fantasy. Its proportions and packaging are built around conventional EV hard points, not a bespoke sci-fi layout. The one unusual engineering touch is a set of "foot garages" cut into the underfloor battery, which keep occupants low and let the roofline sit as low as a petrol coupé. The RCZ is the same height as the Porsche Taycan, which uses the same trick. A production version would likely borrow from the STLA One platform that will underpin the next e-208 and e-308. Peugeot has not revealed any power, performance or range figures, though Hossann describes the aim as a GT coupé rather than an outright sports car.

The inside is where the concept goes furthest. There are no conventional screens. Instead, information appears on transparent panels across the dashboard, and the driver sits low in sport seats behind a square-cut "Hypersquare" steering wheel that points to steer-by-wire, shown earlier on the Polygon concept. Peugeot still includes a number of physical controls, and Hossann says the brand wants to balance buttons, touchscreens and voice control rather than swing fully to one side.

The RCZ also previews the look of the next Peugeot range, which the company calls Feline Future. The new three-claw light signature is turned sideways into three thin LED strips that wrap around each end of the car, a nod to the slatted grilles of the 205 and 405. Peugeot says the sporty coupé is the right vehicle for this, because it was the last truly emotional car the brand made, and the company wants more of that feeling back in its line-up. Production is not confirmed, and Hossann says it depends on market demand. Even so, the first Feline Future model is due on the next e-208 in 2027.