Mihai Panaitescu, from Turin, Italy won the Peugeot Design Contest 2007 with his computer-generated model of the new Peugeot Flux hydrogen-powered automobile. The 20-year-old Romanian student is the youngest ever to win the contest.
The word “Flux” refers to the daily ebb and flows of our complicated lives. The purpose of the Peugeot Flux design is to combine comfort and sportiness in changing environments from work to beach.
One of the key features of the Peugeot Flux is that contains a slim hydrogen power plant in the rear of the vehicle, while the compressed hydrogen fuel tanks reside underneath the hood. Another key feature for gamers is that an integrated Xbox 360 gaming hub is also installed in the vehicle.
Peugeot has stated that they had received over 4,000 submissions for the contest this year. The future plans for the Peugeot Flux are twofold. First, a full-scale and functioning model will be built and exhibited at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany. Second, the Peugeot Flux will be featured in an Xbox 360 video game later in 2007.
So, it is conceivable, at sometime in the future, (perhaps in Frankfurt) that one will be able to both drive the Peugeot Flux for real, while playing it for fantasy at the same time. Or more likely, the passenger will play the game, while the driver drives so that there will not be an untimely “Game Over” mishap.
The design of the Peugeot Flux is a good first step towards creating another exciting hydrogen vehicle with the kind of sportiness and visual design few other hydrogen cars currently employ.