The Espace was conceived of a bit earlier, in the mid-70s.

PSA (Peugeot Citroën) could actually have owned it: the project was a partnership between Matra and Simca (originally concepted by Chrysler UK), PSA acquired Simca in '78 but found the Espace project too risky and expensive so they left it to Matra, which brought it up with Renault.