The French lion makes quite a big roar in Frankfurt – almost 2900 square metres of stand space hosting 27 production cars and - if you count the one-to-one scale model of the Peugeot design competition winner - five concepts. It’s the stand of a manufacturer pushing hard and doing pretty well, selling one million cars in the first half of 2007, and hoping that the first of their new introductions here will push those sales even further.

That’s the new 308, successor to the 307, and making its world premiere in both three and five-door forms, promising improvements all round, including perceived quality and quality in use, and more efficiency from both aerodynamic and powertrain developments.

Two of the concepts are based on the 308, too – Peugeot celebrating the availability of the new model by letting their designers loose to imagine possible future production variants. The first of them is the most striking by far – the 308 RC Z, which inevitably draws comparisons with the Audi TT not only because it’s a compact two-door coupé but also because the pair at first glance have that ‘separated at birth’ look.

The Peugeot is a 2+2, though, where the Audi is strictly a two-seater; it’s also bit more flamboyant, at least in concept guise, but some people will like that, and there’s no denying that it’s something of a head turner, which promises exactly the desired halo effect for less glamorous 308s.

Those, to be honest, include the other 308 concept, the 308 SW Prologue, which is pretty obviously the toe in the water for the next generation 308 estate car model, and which is neat and presumably versatile and practical enough, but hardly exciting to look at.

The third 308 concept takes the inevitable spin, given this week’s theme, in the form of the 308 Hybrid HDi, which is Peugeot’s first car with Hybrid HDi diesel-electric technology which promises to translate to production form ‘by the end of the decade’. Alongside it, the stand also offers a 308 Hybrid HDi simulator where visitors can feel how the car might be to drive in real-world driving situations, how the hybrid powertrain adapts to different needs, and how much fuel it might have saved compared with a conventional car over the same route. Also on the horizon for the 308’s green credentials are a BioFlex version compatible with biofuels including E85 super-ethanol, a Biodiesel version, and a ‘120g’ version promising just what it says on the label, CO2 emissions of only 120g/km.

The other concepts are the Flux – first seen as a design exercise at Geneva in March and now transformed into a full-scale presentation model. Created by 20-year-old designer Mihai Panaitescu from Romania, it also appears in virtual form in a new version of the PGR 4 game for the Xbox 360 – so it’s going to be seen by a whole load of people...

And finally there’s the 908 RC, a concept that feels rather familiar now, having been around for almost a year and echoing the mid-engined V12 HDi DPFS diesel layout of the 908 racer that finished a very honourable second in the Le Mans 24 Hour race in June – but in the case of the 908 RC with several more seats and a good deal more luxury and comfort.