Peugeot SXC concept car (2011) first official pictures

Peugeot will show this SXC crossover concept at next week’s 2011 Shanghai auto show. It’s a large hybrid 4x4 designed in Peugeot’s Chinese styling studio and shows a few pointers for how a future crossover could look. We’ll take that to mean the next 4007 then.

China is a growing market for Peugeot, which expects to sell 200,000 cars there in 2011. It’s launching the new 508 family model there this month, to sell alongside the 207, 308, 408, 3008 and RCZ.

The SXC is 4870mm long, 1610mm tall and 2035mm wide, making it as big as a BMW X5, although it sits a handspan lower to the tarmac. It sounds suspiciously like a future crossover to replace the Mitsu-Franco Peugeot 4007 and Citroen C-Crosser, which was essentially a shortcut to a 4x4 for the French brands. Peugeot only sold 309 in the UK last year.

This new concept car looks infinitely tastier than a rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander. The Peugeot SXC adopts the latest Pug family look with sweptback headlamps, scalloped flanks and a generally sleeker, more aerodynamic look than the pudgier Peugeots of the past decade.

Note a couple of details: the LED front headlamps are especially narrow, and the boomerang motif in the rear lamps recalls those famous Maser lights. Being a concept car, the door mirrors are swapped for higher-tech rear-view cameras, naturellement, and the SXC rolls on 22in alloys.

Oh yes. The passenger compartment is ‘particularly vast’, says the blurb. However, no interior or boot dimensions have been released to back up that claim ahead of its debut in China next week, but the single interior photo released shows a roomy, stylish interior that may not be as far removed from reality as many concept cars’ interiors.

Peugeot Citroen is about to launch its first Hybrid4 hybrid cars, and the SXC features a production-ready powertrain with its electric drive rear axle allowing four-wheel drive running. It’ll therefore drive around town in ZE electric mode if the batteries hold sufficient charge.

The company is preparing diesel and petrol hybrids, depending on the market. The SXC runs a high-output petrol 1.6-litre turbo like the one you’ll find in many mid-market Peugeots or Minis. This one has been tuned to produce 218bhp, which makes for a remarkably punchy performance crossover when allied to the 95bhp electric motor.

Yep, that’s 313bhp combined output, yet Peugeot claims a remarkably precise (for a concept car) 48.7mpg and 143g/km. Which makes us wonder if Peugeot won’t launch this very powertrain in its toppier models. The same engine appeared in the RC concept car, so Peugeot’s clearly dropping heavy hints.

Peugeot is launching first with a diesel-electric hybrid in the 3008 Hybrid4. It’ll go on sale in October 2011, priced from £26,660. It uses PSA's 2.0-litre oil-burner allied to an electric motor, and offers claimed fuel economy of 74mpg and CO2 emissions of 99g/km, slipping – just – under the 100g/km barrier for the lowest UK rate of tax. Next up from Peugeot is the 508 Hybrid4, due in spring 2012.

If Peugeot does get round to replacing the 4007, it would seem a shoo-in to get a HYbrid4 system too. Taller, heavier crossovers benefit more and the last crossover it showed – the smaller HR1 at the 2010 Paris motor show – had one too.

By Tim Pollard