IndiaAIFounders — The tri-motor Peugeot E-T16 can hit 0-100kph in a blazing 2.5sec

The ’80s, the ’90s, the 2000s...who knows which decade is currently most fashionable? What’s apparent is that the past is offering refuge from the unpleasant present, and if we’re residing in a post-postmodern cultural pick’n’mix, then we may as well go all-in on an ’80s Group B immersion.

We each have our favorites, but the Peugeot 205 T16 is arguably king of the hill, and the original snarled its way to consecutive manufacturers’ titles in the WRC in 1985 and 1986. As per the rules, Peugeot homologated 200 for the road, severely detuned for civilian use to a suboptimal but still lively circa-200hp, but looking magnificently jacked all the same.

PHOTO BY Peugeot

The Peugeot E-T16 concept is not short of power. Oh, no. In fact, it has 805hp courtesy of three electric motors—one mounted at the front, two at the rear—that can vary the torque distribution between them according to the conditions and selected drive mode. There are also three of those, governing all the usual parameters including suspension setup and power delivery, up to and including a Track mode for more extrovert driving. The sort of thing, in fact, that the great Ari Vatanen used to get up to back when world rallying was as big a draw as F1.

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The E-T16’s numbers are nutty: 0-100kph in 2.5sec and nearly 300kph in 16sec, while a simulation suggests that it can complete three laps of the Nordschleife at full tilt without the 85kWh NMC battery derating. It uses an 800V architecture for 10% to 80% charging in 15 minutes using 350kW fast charging; Peugeot claims a range of around 400km WLTP, but not while you’re hammering round the Nürburgring.

PHOTO BY Peugeot

The E-T16 has suitably mighty brakes: four 380mm diameter discs, shod with chunky Michelin rubber—275mm wide at the front, 315mm at the rear. There’s also a vertically mounted hydraulic handbrake inside…because that’s the law.

Let’s get into the exterior design. The regular 205 was designed by Gérard Welter and the great Paul Bracq; the GTI iteration was a rolling manifesto for well-managed proportions and clever graphics. The T16, though, was deliberately unpretty, like all those Group B cars, when function beat the crap out of form in the aim of optimum cooling and performance. Fugly, you could say. The French have a more decorous phrase for this: jolie laide, unconventionally attractive.

PHOTO BY Peugeot

The E-T16 is too considered for that, but still pushes things to the limit. Peugeot wants to get more expressively extroverted as it reasserts itself, and the so-called ‘three-claw light signature’ gets a thorough horizontal remix here. The front end is dominated by a trio of slim light bars with an illuminated Peugeot logo center stage. They glow yellow, like old-school French car headlights, but the taillights and side pin stripe are red—as they were on the original 205 GTI and T16.

If not quite as tumescent as the ’80s car, the homage is still an aggressive little number. There are fat wheel arches, a sculpted hood punctured by two big air outlets, and a sensationally OTT front bumper with three cooling intakes. Notice also the air extractors behind the front wheels, and the aero at the rear whose diffuser incorporates two adjustable blades. It’s all topped off with a ‘cat ear’ rear wing that should look silly but doesn’t.

PHOTO BY Peugeot

The bulk of the car is finished in a matte gray, known as gris Winchester, another evocative nod to the E-T16’s famous forebear, though it doesn’t sound very French. The wheels are a micro-blasted silver and look magnificent. The entire rear section opens, as it did on the original, but because it’s 2026 and not 1986, the view is of a pair of electric motors instead of a combustion engine and turbo, and the carbon tub. Rather than a cooling duct for said engine, the air intake ahead of the rear wheel is now home to the charging port and a button to open the door.

Inside, you’ll find an evolved version of Peugeot’s initially perplexing but rather useful i-Cockpit. There’s a 21-inch panoramic display, but never mind that; it’s time to prepare for the Hypersquare, a reinvention of the wheel—and the steering itself—that you’ll also see in the new RCZ concept. (It’ll make production landfall first in the next-gen E-208).

PHOTO BY Peugeot

By using ‘steer-by-wire’ tech, it does away with the physical steering column and mechanical linkages, has a variable ratio, and uses four circular pods to house various controls. It looks amazing, especially in the E-T16, where it gains a few extra bells and whistles, but in reality it will also eliminate vibrations and torque steer. Just 170 degrees is required to go from straight-ahead to full lock.

Drag your eyeballs away from that, and you’ll find carbon fiber, anodized aluminum, recycled Pelinova leather, and Plexiglas in the wild-looking bucket seats.

As with the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, the ’80s energy is strong indeed with this one. Its big local rival is building 1980 of those; can we suggest that Peugeot might go six better on the E-T16?

More photos of the Peugeot E-T16 concept:

PHOTO BY Peugeot

NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.

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