The 208 GTi Concept will be powered by the 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine Peugeot shares with BMW’s fast Minis. The study will be very close to the production model that will follow in less than a year's time.
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Naturally, the recent presentation of the 208 supermini meant that the French carmaker is getting ready to revive the RC / GTi moniker. This may happen sooner than we think as Peugeot just published a teaser photo of a double tip exhaust on its Facebook page with the caption "Is the myth coming back?"
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According to a report from Autonews Europe, the Renault Group was represented by chief operating officer Carlos Tavares, while PSA Peugeot-Citroen sent Denis Martin, executive vice president for industrial operations. Both automakers confirmed the comments.
Tavares told the French commissions that one of Renault's most popular models, the Clio, costs €1,300 (US$1,700) more to produce at the firm's Flins plant in France than in the company's factory in Bursa, Turkey.
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The French firm's new model will likely be named 301, as Peugeot would like to skip the 309 moniker that was used on its 1980s compact hatch.
Like the smaller 208, Peugeot's Golf rival is expected to be both more compact in length and lighter than the model it replaces with obvious benefits in fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions.
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Volkswagen delivered 484,547 units of the Golf in 2011, down 1.6% over the previous year. The German company also took second spot with the Polo that sold 356,490 cars, up 0.5%, while the Ford Fiesta with 348,465 sales (-13.3%), the Opel / Vauxhall Corsa with 313,325 units (-1.7%) and the Renault Clio with 294,172 (-13.1%) complete the Top 5.
We should note that all Top 10 best-sellers came from either German (7 models) or French (3 models) brands.
JATO Dynamics says that outside the top ten, certain models performed much better than their predecessors did including Peugeot’s new 508, which saw its sales rise almost three times achieved by its predecessor, the 407, in 2010, the new Ford C-Max/Grand C-Max, Citroën C4, BMW X3 and Kia Sportage.
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Now, if you're wondering why the French company is abandoning the series after a successful run with 14 victories in the last 16 races, including a double at the Le Mans 24 Hours 2009 as part of the ILMC championship won by Peugeot two years in a row in 2010 and 2011, the answer is financial difficulties.
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