Automakers have a history of venturing into the open seas on occasion. Aston Martin is known for this. Over the years, we’ve even seen the likes of Bentley, Abarth, and a host of others dip their toes in the boat industry. Now it looks like Peugeot is trying to get a slice of that pie with a new creation called the Sea Drive Concept. Yes, it’s a boat. Sadly, it’s a concept.

Look, I’m not foolish enough to think that Peugeot is really trying to break into the boat industry. There’s a lot more to it than building a boat concept. I understand that the Sea Drive Concept is really a showcase of the French automaker’s i-Cockpit system, which we’ve already seen applied on some of its models. It says a lot about the technology of the system that it can also be applied to a boat design with the help of famous boat manufacturer Beneteau and its own connected Ship Control technology. The two companies have shown that their respective systems can work together to serve as the backbone of a new-age boat design.

Peugeot says that the Sea Drive Concept is also fully functional. I have no qualms about that. But its functionality doesn’t cover the practicality of producing this boat for production. Costs come into the picture. Development becomes more complicated. It’s easy to see the Sea Drive Concept now for what it could become. But to actually go there is far more difficult than it looks.

I am bummed that this beautiful creation is unlikely to hit production. But if Peugeot and Beneteau developed the Sea Drive Concept with the intention of giving us a glimpse of the potential of their respective systems, then this concept accomplished that and a whole lot more.

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