Peugeot has revealed this concept, the '5 By Peugeot', ahead of the car's in-the-metal launch at the Geneva motor show in March.
Although Peugeot says that the car is purely a design concept, like the Peugeot SR1 sports car concept also scheduled for Geneva, it points the way forward for the future of Peugeot design.
More specifically, the '5 By Peugeot' previews the successor to today's rather conservative 407. That car will be aimed squarely at the higher end of the large family car segment - a market currently dominated by the VW Passat and Passat CC - and will even take a swipe at traditional 'compact execs' like the BMW 3-series and Merc C-class.
As the '5' label hints, the 407's replacement will move upmarket, as Peugeot plans to replace both the 407 and 607 with just one model. Working title? We'd say Peugeot 508 is probably a safe bet...
The '5 By Peugeot' is also a car that seems to be attempting to be all things to all men - 200bhp and four-wheel drive should give it good-side-of-respectable performance, while fuel consumption of 74.3mpg and CO2 emissions of 99g/km will please the greenies and the tight-of-wallet in equal measure.
So how does the '5 By Peugeot' achieve such spectacular figures? By means of the near-inevitable hybrid drivetrain, of course.
This time it's a 2.0-litre, 163bhp diesel coupled to a 37bhp electric motor, a combination that will first see the light of day in 2011, beneath the unfortunate-looking body of the 3008 MPV.
As for exactly how much of the '5 By Peugeot' will survive to become the 508 - or even when that will happen - Peugeot isn't telling. All a Peugeot source would say to PH was that "A lot of what you see here [on the 5 By Peugeot] will end up on the next Peugeot saloon".