I’m afraid I have to be the bearer of bad news: Peugeot has no plans to make a production version of the utterly stunning, 504 coupé-inspired e-Legend Concept – although the firm’s design chief Gilles Vidal admitted to us that he’d “love to”. I’d love the company to, as well. I suspect you would too.

If you strip out the electric powertrain, autonomous driving technology and eye-catching future-looking interior, the e-Legend concept is a fantastically styled car. It’s wonderfully retro, yet also fresh and modern. To my eyes, it has as much American muscle car about it as stylish French coupé. 

It looks like the sort of car you really want to drive. By looking to the past for inspiration, but without getting caught up in full-on retro pastiche, Peugeot has made the future look cool. 

Which is notable, since an awful lot of self-driving concepts don’t. A large number of such machines take the form of minimalist driverless pods, accompanied by lots of talk about ‘mobility’. They’re worthy, and significant, and interesting. And, yes, such machines will eventually be part of our future.