The answer is almost always money, honey.
Peugeot isn’t risking it because they’d take a bath. Without the government incentive, why would a manufacturer put their eggs — ANY eggs — in a Hybrid-Air system basket?
The R&D costs, the durability and safety testing of components/subsystems/the whole vehicle, production/marketing of the final product must all be considered. I reckon this “moonshot” is a dangerous investment: only Tesla has the juice (and dat market cap) to make cars while often losing money.
There’s nothing wrong with moonshots: the Toyota Prius is proof. Between a Federal boondoggle Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles that (not?) surprisingly produced zilch for would-be buyers, the California ZEV initiative, and whatever Jim Press was alluding to, Toyota had ample reason to give their hybrid system a shot in Japan and the USA.
I’m not gonna speculate to the validity of Hybrid Air Systems in the real world of motoring: it’d be awesome to see it hit the road to see the pros and cons firsthand.
But follow the money and you’ll totally see why it had to die.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/ ... r-engines/