The Peugeot of the future?

Peugeot has wheeled out some stunning concepts over the past few years, but its star exhibit at the Shanghai motor show was, in fact, the winning entry in a design competition staged by the French manufacturer.

Show-goers at China's premier auto expo had the opportunity to ogle the Peugeot RD concept (more here), the winning project in the 5th Peugeot design competition -- the subject of which was: "Imagine the Peugeot in the Worldwide Megalopolis of tomorrow".

The offbeat Batmobile-esque three-wheeler was penned by Colombian Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar, and his creation saw off the challenge of 2500 other projects submitted by candidates from 95 different countries.

The USP of the RD concept car is said to be "its ingenious system of articulation that provides irreproachable road holding allied with the ability to easily thread its way through urban traffic".

Powered by an eco-friendly electric motor, the single-seat concept features a driving position that allegedly offers a real feeling of control, thanks to its panoramic vision, voice-message driving assistance and a heads-up display system that conveys "all the information required for travelling in complete safety".

The RD isn't by any means the first three-wheeled Peugeot concept, as four years ago it trundled out the 20Cup (with two wheels at the front and one at the rear), which debuted the 1.6-litre turbo engine co-developed by BMW and the PSA Group -- and now used by the likes of the Mini Cooper S and Peugeot 207 GTi

In a similar vein to the 20Cup, the RD is said to provide the freedom of a bike, along with the safety and stability of a four-wheeled vehicle -- generating no noise or harmful emissions in the process.

As for its designer, Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar is a 27-year-old Colombian who grew up in the small industrial town of Tunja. Since childhood, he has been working and modelling in clay and is passionate about sculpture. Accordingly, he has drawn, sketched and sculpted a host of objects, especially cars, in all sorts of materials.

In addition to seeing his project produced on a 1:1 scale, Tovar's booty for winning the design contest included a cheque for 10,000 euros and an Xbox 360 games console.

Peugeot claims its fifth design competition was "a genuine success", attracting over 600,000 visitors to the www.peugeot.com website and a wealth of interaction on blogs and forums from all over the world.

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