The top 10 debuts at the 2014 Paris motor show

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 Citroën DS Divine Concept

Citroën’s DS premium hatchback continues to cultivate offshoots. A concept car in the traditional, aspirational sense of the term, the Divine is a low-slung four-door hatch wrapped in sensuously creased sheet metal and riding on 20in wheels. It is a shimmering grey Jessica Rabbit of a car.

“This concept car is the very essence of what DS is and what it will be,” stated company chief Yves Bonnefont. “A perfect alliance between sophistication and technology.”

The Divine is propelled by a 270hp, turbocharged, direct-injected 1.6-litre engine rated at 145 g/km of CO2. Expect the Divine to influence the shape of the next-generation DS – which, of course, should not be confused with the “Deésse”

 Peugeot Quartz Concept

Peugeot has become a force in the crossover market, its reputation partially built on its success in the Dakar Rally. The Quartz concept aims to corral that rough-and-ready image and channel it for street performance, with a muscular body covering a 500hp plug-in hybrid electric powertrain.

As a show car should, the Quartz rolls on exaggeratedly large 23in tires. The sculpted carbon fibre structure is adorned with mineral grey paint forward and matte black aft, highlighted with splashes of red between.

The powertrain’s foundation is a 270hp 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. Additionally, the front and rear axles each feature their own 85kW electric motor, which can drive the car as far as 50km on a single charge of the 400v battery pack when running in electric-only mode. That could be handy if Peugeot’s future Dakar racers find themselves out of gas between checkpoints. 

 Lamborghini Asterion LPI 910-4

After four decades of brutalist angularity in the wake of the Countach, Lamborghini returned to the curves of the Miura and Jalpa with the Asterion, a 910hp, all-wheel drive hybrid-electric luxury cruiser.

One aim of the Asterion’s powertrain is to preserve the sound and character of the Lamborghini V10 engine (seen most recently in the Huracán) without the muting effect of increasingly ubiquitous turbochargers.

The electric assist nets fuel efficiency of 4.1 liters/100km, while the thundering V10, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and trio of electric motors can also combine to vault the Asterion to a claimed 320kph (199mph) and from a standstill to 100kph in just 3 seconds.

The Asterion’s 910-4 nomenclature refers to the car’s power (610 gasoline-fed horsepower, plus 300 electric ponies) and four drive wheels. Another significant number is 50, which is the number of kilometers the Asterion can travel using just the energy stored in its lithium-ion battery pack. 

 Ferrari 458 Speciale A

No proper survey of show cars is complete without representing the Prancing Horse, and this year’s entrant is the Ferrari 458 Speciale A, a topless variation on the maximum-performance 458 Speciale.

Maranello will build only 499 units of this car, ensuring LaFerrari-like exclusivity to go along with the car’s three-second zero to 62mph time.

The retractable hard top roof stows away in just 14 seconds, making it easy to let the sun in while sitting at a traffic light. The show car wears Modena yellow paint that could well substitute for the sun, topped by a blue NART (North American Racing Teams) and Bianco Avus stripe. 

 Audi TT Sportback Concept

Audi continues to diversify its holdings of TT stock. After previously showing off-road and shooting brake concept variations (saying nothing of its wholly redesigned source material), the German luxury brand brought its Sportback Concept to Paris.

The Sportback carries cues of the new TT coupe, some hints of the original TT in details such the rounded corners of the rear window, and some traces of other Audi models as well. Indeed, it is not likely to be confused for a Mercedes. Enormous 21in wheels let the enlarged TT retain some of the visual proportions of the coupe.

The 400-horsepower concept also scorches the road ahead with laser lighting that activates at speeds of about 60kph.

 Honda Civic Type R

Honda unleashed the turbocharged 2-litre Civic Type R, which the company promises is faster than any Honda Type R model to precede it – including the vaunted NSX.

“Honda has had four Type R model derivatives – the Civic, Integra, Accord and NSX,” noted Suehiro Hasshi, the project leader. “The engine in this new Honda Civic Type R is unrivalled against all of them in terms of raw power, torque and engine response.”

The Type R show car wears a searing blue paint job that recalls an electric spark inside a natural gas flame. Alas, such a dramatic hue is likely limited to the motor-show floor, and not the dealer’s showroom.

Purists will be thrilled by the Civic Type R’s use of a traditional H-pattern six-speed manual transmission. A +R button on the steering wheel mirrors the “push-to-pass” button used in some racing series, by dialling up sharpened engine, suspension and steering profiles.

The production version of the car is slated to arrive in European dealers in 2015. 

 Citroën Cactus Airflow 2L Concept

The French automotive industry in general, at the Paris show in particular, strives to cultivate a reputation for curious, sometimes unfathomable, styling. So when Citroën introduced the odd-duck Cactus crossover earlier this year, festooned as it was with so-called “aerobumps” claimed to reduce drag, it raised the novelty bar for whatever might have followed.

Hence, the Cactus Airflow 2L, which uses moveable shutters to cut airflow through the grille and between the spokes of its wheels, along with side deflectors that deploy to steer air around the sides of the car.

The real news from the Airflow is out of sight: its name refers not only to its active aerodynamics, but also its propulsion system, which features hybrid drive tech that harnesses compressed air to recover energy. The result is a car rated at just two litres of fuel consumption per 100km, in a world where three litres/100km is the benchmark for ultimate efficiency.

 Infiniti Q80 Inspiration Concept

The Nissan luxury subsidiary has again demonstrated its potential to become a serious global premium brand with the unveiling of the Q80 Inspiration concept car: a long, long and sinuous sedan whose rooftop reaches a scant 1,350mm above the ground, while the car stretches five meters from bumper to bumper.

The four portal-style doors open to individual seats which aim to provide equal priority to each occupant, driver or not. The panoramic glass roof keeps the cabin atmosphere light and airy.

The Q80 concept is propelled by a hybrid electric drive system with a total power of 550hp that is claimed to achieve 5.5 litre/100km fuel economy.

Now it falls to Infiniti to prove that it can channel such virtuosity to the showroom. 

 Mercedes-AMG GT

“Benz” is notably absent from the Mercedes-AMG GT, a new production sports coupe developed by the German company’s Affalterbach-based performance subsidiary. Perhaps the surname might’ve added unwanted mass, because the lightweight aluminium bullet accelerates to 60mph in a claimed 3.7 seconds (when fitted with the top-line twin-turbo 503hp V8 engine) and achieves 193mph.

The standard GT makes do with 456hp from a lower-spec version of the same 4-litre AMG V8.

"With the new Mercedes-AMG GT, we are venturing out into a challenging sports car segment with its top-class competitive field,” remarked Thomas Weber, Daimler board of management member responsible for R&D. “This is an incentive and motivation for us at the same time to prove to sports car enthusiasts around the world the kind of performance that AMG is capable of.”

Those buyers for whom the GT remains but a dream can get a piece of its technology in a more affordable package: the CLA 45 and GLA 45 AMG cars employ a four-cylinder engine that is basically one bank of the GT’s V8.

Volkswagen XL Sport

The Volkswagen Group’s acquisition of Italy’s Ducati motorcycles in 2012 has produced a literal blend of the companies’ know-how, as VW’s XL Sport concept shows what is possible when the super-efficient XL1 hybrid electric car is re-powered with the beating twin-cylinder heart from a Ducati sportbike.

The XL Sport’s light weight of 1,962lbs and slender frontal area of just 0.44 meters, combined with a 197hp 1199cc V-twin Ducati engine, work together to enable a terminal velocity of 168mph. Along the way, the mongrel machine accelerates to 100kph in just 5.2 seconds, as the driver clicks through the dual-clutch transmission’s seven gears.

VW made no production announcement, but the company has committed to building 250 units of the XL1, so there is solid reason to hope for a short production run of the XL Sport, too