We won’t be seeing a new Megane RS until around 2017, as Renault is apparently going to keep the current model in production until the end of 2016.
According to Motoring, which quotes Regis Fricotte, the global head of RenaultSport, the upcoming hot hatch will be based on the five-door Megane and it may actually come with a manual gearbox.
There will reportedly be a gap between when the current RS is phased out and the new one introduced.
In regards to the switch from three- to five-door layouts, Fricotte explained: “we always have a soft spot for coupes but realistically we also have to keep in mind that from a family perspective, from a model perspective.”
“So we had to cut some variants somewhere, so making a vehicle like we did with the Clio, which many people didn’t notice had five doors, it’s possible to make a sporty looking five-door in my view and take a bit of compromise by not making a coupe. It would have been too many models,” he noted.
In regards to the 300 PS power figure, they “need to increase performance because as you can see the market in the C-segment is going towards 300 plus horsepower – the Golf R, the Focus, the Civic R is all going up,” Mr. Fricotte concluded.
He didn’t mention the rear-wheel steering that’s already been announced for the Megane GT version, but that doesn’t rule it out or confirm it. Hybridization isn’t on the table, though, and neither is all-wheel drive.
rendering via X-Tomi
Photo Gallery
