The current Renault Koleos is just too ugly (and not keenly enough priced) to sell well (it lacks mass appeal), even if it’s by no means a bad car. Its identity problem was made worse by the fact that it was not clear which size class it fit into, whether it rivaled the Nissan Qashqai or the larger X-Trail.
Now, Renault has released the Kadjar, a car that’s eerily similar in terms of exterior styling and proportions to the all-new Qashqai with which it shares its running gear, so the Koleos needs to be reinvented.
And that’s apparently what they’re doing by making it bigger and giving it a third row of seats. That’s the story according to Australia’s Motoring, which goes on to say the new Koleos will be five meters long, or about 36 cm / 15 inches longer than the current-gen X-Trail.
However, it seems Renault doesn’t want to posh up the Koleos, as it still wants the stylish new Espace to be seen as its flagship offering.
The source also quotes some older statements by Renault’s senior VP of Corporate Design, laurens van den Acker, who said the model “is developed and will be produced in China in 2016, and there is a chance it will come to Europe as well… I think it will be 2017.”
He reportedly went on to say that “the goal is not to steal sales from the QASHQAI. It is to steal sales from Volkswagen, from Kia, from Toyota, and I think there is room in the market to do it.”
X-Trail-based rendering created in-house by Andrei Nedelea
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