Around the globe, Peugeot fans want a fuel cell car, especially if it looks like it glided out of a movie that shows a future isn't overrun by menacing robots or disease. The winner of Peugeot's fourth P.L.E.A.S.E. design competition, the Flux, is just that car, and it beat out a wide selection of 4,028 other concepts, including a three-wheeled battery-powered car that gets my award for best-named vehicle in the competition, considering: the Concept Liion.

The subject of the competition was P.L.E.A.S.E., which stands for "Pleasure through its Lightness and its Efficiency while remaining Accessible through its Simplicity and Environmentally-friendly in its design." The lightweight Flux nails those ideas with its (conceptual) "non-polluting fuel cell engine." If only it were as easy to build as it is to put on paper.

Mihai Panaitescu, a Romanian design student studying in Turin, designed the Flux, and, at only 20, is the competition's youngest winner. This car will now be built in a life-size model to be displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September and will be included in an upcoming Xbox game, either later this year or in 2008.

Don't take this like a cop-out or anything, but these cars are all winners, really. Getting designers around the world (see the list after the jump) to think of sleek, lightweight and alternative-energy vehicles is a great thing, and Peugeot can't adapt some of these ideas to their production cars quick enough. We've put together a high-resolution gallery of images of all the top eight finalists concepts. Click on the thumbnails to enter. Enjoy. For more information, visit the official design site.



[Source: Peugeot]