Renault’s SUV crossover range will expand to three models by the end of the decade as it launches four-wheel drive models above and below the Korean- built Koleos, which reaches showrooms in July.
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The company’s design vice president Patrick Le Quement told just-auto: “We are developing a range of SUV crossovers and the Koleos sits right bang in the middle.
“There will be an addition to the Megane range, when the new cars arrive over the next 18-months. A bigger brother for the Koleos is something we are looking at.”
Harnessing Nissan X-Trail running gear in four and two-wheel-drive form, the Koleos is built by Renault-Samsung in South Korea, from where its larger counterpart, adapting the new Nissan Murano platform, will also be sourced.
Next-generation Megane technology plus expertise gained from Nissan’s Qashqai (aka Dualis) will be incorporated in the smaller SUV crossover, broadening the new Megane range.
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By GlobalDataLe Quement said: “There is plenty of room below Koleos as people downsize, as Ford has shown with Kuga.”
Renault UK managing director Roland Bouchara said: “A smaller SUV could be two years away but we will go down to that size. We are not talking about the same volumes as the compact MPVs where used car values were damaged in a congested market.”
Renault’s baby SUV is set to join a burgeoning group of junior crossovers with Toyota’s Urban Cruiser, and Land Rover’s LRX, while Audi is planning a small Q3 sibling for the upcoming Q5 and existing Q7, and Volvo is working on the XC30, to complement the C30.
Apart from Quadra four-wheel-drive running gear, which applied to models including the original Espace in the late 1980s and the 1990 21Turbo, Renault dabbled with off-road 4×4 with the Steyr Daimler Puch-developed Scenic RX4 (2000-2003) and Kangoo Trekka.
Hugh Hunston
