Peugeot will unveil the concept of a small SUV at the Paris motor show. It’s the 2008 concept, the 208’s big brother. We’ll see the production model next year. MotorNature is not much about SUVs, even small ones, but this concept has something interesting under its hood: a turbocharged 3-cylinder. Peugeot has developed one like Ford, but it unveils it the other way around. Ford’s new 3-cylinder was first introduced in its most powerful turbocharged version (the 125 hp Ecoboost), whereas Peugeot launched its 208 with a non-turbocharged inline-3 (82 hp) as the base engine.

Now, Peugeot shows a turbocharged 110 hp version of that inline-3 in this 2008 concept, while Ford should unveil in Paris a non-turbocharged version of its 3-cylinder. We may expect about 70 hp from it, and it could become the Fiesta’s base engine. Back to Peugeot, the 2008 concept will have a 110 hp turbocharged engine, but we may expect a 130 hp (possibly even more) version sometimes later. Americans will probably look at those engines as unexpected aliens, but 3-cylinder engines have a big future in Europe.