Peugeot SXC Crossover: WON'T get HYbrid4 & probably won't be built either.

Peugeot SXC Concept Shanghai Motor Show Reveal

The very sexy Peugeot SXC Concept won't get HYbrid4

Cars UK has discovered that the Peugeot SXC Concept is unlikely to be produced, and if it is it will NOT get the HYbrid4 powertrain.

In the last year we’ve probably done at least ten Peugeot Reviews. And we really haven’t found anything much to moan about. We rate the Peugeot 5008 as about the most fun MPV to blat around – even in a lowly version – and the Peugeot 3008 is the best crossover on the market.

Even when something doesn’t quite live up to expectation, there’s mitigation. We’d hoped for more excitement from the Peugeot RCZ than it delivered, but at the money it’s glorious to look at – certainly from the rear three-quarters – and offers real fun, if not quite an awesome adrenalin rush.

Even more impressive than Peugeot’s production cars are their concepts. The pick for us has been the Peugeot SR1 Concept , which conspired to introduce a new nose to Peugeot’s design language and to look almost as good as an Aston Martin in the process.

And this week we had the Peugeot SXC, which has been penned by Peugeot’s Shanghai Design Team and is a very impressive looking, high-riding, shooting-brake come coupe-ish crossover. We love how it looks.

We also love that the SXC came with Peugeot’s HYbrid4 setup which offers 4WD thanks to a 95bhp motor on the back axle and which contributes to the 218bhp diesel turbo at the front to give the addictive mix of performance and economy.

Except we now learn that the SXC is unlikely to make production, and even if it does it won’t get Peugeot’s HYbrid4. And that’s for exactly the same reason that Peugeot won’t be fitting HYbrid4 to their Chinese market 3008.

We reported last year that Peugeot won’t take the 3008 HYbrid4 to China because if they did they would have to give up their hybrid technology to their Chinese partners. Which, understandably, they’re reluctant to do. At the time we quoted PSA’s CFO – Frederic Saint Geours -as saying that ”The Chinese government will have to reconsider its position”. Which it obviously hasn’t.

So why produce a concept said to sport HYbrid4 and to designed just for the Chinese market? The man from Peugeot said:

The concept is the first vehicle to be produced in the Chinese design centre by the Chinese designers. This is why it is being launched [at Shanghai]
As for Hybrid 4 it will not be launched in China. The concept is simply a statement to say what we can do.

So now you know. Peugeot could produce a HYbrid4 SXC. But they won’t.