Peugeot teases all-new supercar

Peugeot has begun the slow-release reveal of what it calls a 'mystery concept car' and what appears to be an all-new super-coupe.

No further information has been provided at this stage, but the video shows snippets of an extremely low-slung sports car being partially unveiled by Peugeot Style Director, Gilles Vidal.

"This concept car is a vehicle that blends the codes of the GT, the super car and prototype sports cars," says Vidal in the video, which ends with the words "coming soon".

It's not known if Peugeot intends to string out its staggered reveal campaign ahead of a world debut in September at its home motor show in Paris, which will host the next international motor show.

Alternatively, the video might not herald an actual car at all, but a virtual racer for PlayStation's Gran Turismo 6 video game.

But the mystery car looks similar in proportions to the Onyx concept (pictured) that Peugeot debuted at the Paris show in 2012, suggesting it could be a bona-fide supercar from the French brand.

Autocar reported Peugeot boss Maxime Picat has confirming at this week's Shanghai motor show that the RCZ coupe will not be directly replaced, as part of a model cull that will reduce the number of vehicles it produces from 26 to 13 by 2022.

“If I tell you that the 13 most important silhouettes that we sell account for 95 per cent of all our sales and more than 100 per cent of all our profits you will understand why this is necessary," Picat told Autocar this week.

"I love the RCZ, but I want us to focus on making the best of our core models, from Peugeot 108 upwards, and to exploit what we then have to the best of our abilities. For each of those cars we can choose attributes and be the best. Chasing niches is for premium brands; for us it has been a distraction.”

However, Peugeot is also on record as saying that a coupe will be among the range of models to be developed from the same EMP2 platform that underpins the latest 308.

Peugeot also used the Shanghai show to reveal the 308 R Hybrid, which we understand previews Peugeot's next-generation 308 GTi hot hatch.

The long-awaited 308 performance flagship is expected to be powered by a conventional four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, but its advanced 368kW all-wheel drive hybrid powertrain could well provide the motivation for a high-performance coupe that could well be worthy of a 'supercar' moniker.

For the record, the 308 R Hybrid was created by the French car-maker’s motorsport division, Peugeot Sport, and is powered by a 199kW 1.6-litre turbo that’s lifted from the RCZ R coupe, aided by two 85kW electric motors mounted on the front and rear axle.

Pug says the result is 368kW of power and 730Nm of torque and an all-wheel drivetrain that can send it to 100km/h in four seconds and a limited top speed of 250km/h, while emitting just 70g/km of CO2.

Four driving modes are offered with the plug-in hybrid concept. For normal use the 308 R HYbrid’s, in ‘Road’ mode produces 221kW of power with torque limited to 400Nm. In this mode the driver gets full petrol power and some boost from the rear electric motor only.

Visit a race circuit and you can switch to ‘Track’ mode that brings into play the front electric motor - but only when accelerating. Power rises to 294kW/530Nm.

The full 368kW/730Nm is only unleashed in a mode called ‘Hot Lap’ that uses full power from all three engines.

The 308 R HYbrid can also run in pure electric in its ZEV mode but it’s unknown for how long or how far. Peugeot says it takes just 45 minutes to fully charge the 3kWh lithium battery using a fast charger.