Dan Strong's column

We Brits have a lot to be proud of. When it comes to creating fabulous designs, we are among the best in the world. This was brought home to me the other day, when I visited the completely revamped St Pancras station in London. Inside, the building is so beautiful you could be forgiven for thinking it was constructed by angels. I was there to catch the Eurostar train to Paris, ironically to visit somewhere which has been experiencing a creativity drought of late – Peugeot’s design centre.

My arrival in Paris couldn’t have been more different to my London departure. The city was gridlocked. A public strike had shut down the bus and underground service, and a seething queue of people waiting for taxis stretched as far as the eye could see. Happily for me, though, a driver from Peugeot was at the station waiting with a 4007 to take me to the new design HQ. Worryingly, when I arrived at my destination, the security guard took my passport off me, and I had to wrack my brains for anything I might have said in the car that could have caused offence.

Peugeot’s design headquarters is a spectacular place. Almost as good as St Pancras – with huge corridors that are wide enough to drive a car down, and a massive glass roof. Called the ADN – a play on the French word for DNA – it’s straight out of James Bond’s Dr No school of architecture. Only the bad guys in jump suits have been supplanted, inexplicably, with Frenchmen in dungarees, who seem to spend their days ferrying prototype seats from one room to another. We followed one of them down towards the heart of the building, to meet Jerome Gallix, the company’s new design chief.

Gallix, with his infectious enthusiasm and ready answers for tough questions, is immediately likeable. “Peugeot’s future begins here,” he said simply. Insiders at the firm claim his arrival has been greeted with seismic changes in the way the company is not only looking at the future, but talking about it, too. New technology is being developed to empower designers in ways few rivals seem to be able to match.

The highlight of this is a portable milling machine, no bigger than a man, that enables designers to translate ideas immediately from computer into a full-scale model – a process that usually takes months. Led into the heart of the design studio, I even got to see one working, as it fine-tuned the window line of a car that looked to me like the beginnings of the replacement for the current 407 – not due until 2010.

Gallix added, “We must let our designers run with their ideas. It’s the emotion that counts. Peugeot needs an identity. It must have a face. It should be spectacular, desirable, and above all dynamic. That means our cars need greater harmony, more sensuality – basically there should be more room for the paint.”

So where does Gallix see the firm in five years’ time? Well, there’s no direct answer – but in short, more upmarket, sportier, yet not necessarily more expensive. Mention BMW, and you’ll get a wry smile – but are managers really ready to trade in their 3-Series or 5-Series to get behind the wheel of a Peugeot?

Maybe not yet. But Gallix is convinced that in the near future, things will be very different. France is changing, and choosing its future. “Look back into history, and there is nothing that Peugeot doesn’t have,” he said, alluding to the brand’s rich heritage. “It’s time to take control of this again.” Can Gallix and his team create cars which are as beautiful as St Pancras? Maybe not yet, but on the evidence that I have seen, I wouldn’t bet against it.