Currently reading: 'Peugeots have lost their beauty'

New design boss admits last alluring Peugeot went on sale in 1996

Peugeot needs to go back to making beautiful and desirable cars again, according to the company’s new design boss Jean-Pierre Ploue.

Ploue, recently promoted from Citroen to be in charge of all PSA design, told Autocar that he was working on a strategy to revolutionise the look of future Peugeots.

"We need more athletic looking Peugeots and they need to be alluring," he said.

He also admitted that the last Peugeot to reflect this was the 1996 Peugeot Coupe, designed by Pininfarina. However, he claimed that such future work could be done in-house.

Ploue also revealed that a show car illustrating his new design language for the French brand would be coming with the next few months. Peugeot insiders have tipped it to co-incide with the company’s 200th anniversary in 2010.

However, the first Ploue influenced production car is likely to be the next generation supermini, the 208, due in 2011.

Chas Hallett

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