Mid-sized MPV means Peugeot can tempt buyers away from Citroen's C4 Picasso and Renault's all-new Scenic. 

This is Peugeot’s new 5008, a new mid-size MPV that you’ll be able to buy from early next year. At a first look the car looks sleek and modern. But, from the details that Peugeot have released so far, there’s nothing to suggest that it breaks any real new ground.

It is a new move for Peugeot, which has previously lacked a car for this market sector, although its 308 SW came close by providing up to seven seats. Like rivals such as the Citroen C4 Picasso and Renault Scenic, the 5008 will be available with either five or seven seats. Peugeot is keen to promise that passenger space will be generous for everyone in seven-seat 5008s – something not all of its competitors can rightly claim.

The company says it has also worked hard to make entering/exiting the rearmost seats as easy as possible: the outer mid-row seats lift forward as a piece and in a single action.

Prices haven’t been announced yet, but we’d expect them to run from £15,000. Top-spec models will be particularly well equipped, including such likely treats as a head-up display, which projects speed and other vital info on to the windscreen glass, at the lower edge of the driver’s sight line.

They will also feature a distance alert, which uses radar to measure the distance between the front bumper and the car in front. It will then translate into a closing distance, measured in seconds and warn the driver if he is following too close.