Greetings from Geneva! You’ve already seen many of the cars lined up for their world premiere at the Palexpo, so some might be surprised that the show only opens to the press today (11 am now). Such is the world today, but nothing beats live images, so we’ll try our best to provide that from the greatest car show on the calendar.
UPDATE: Information on variants and powertrains added. Kadjar has been declared a global model, and will come to Asia.
We’ll kick off proceedings at the Renault booth, which is decked out in similar fashion to the brand’s Paris 2014 stand – dune style with what looks like floating eggs in the sky. Scattered around the hills and valleys is the main event here – the Renault Kadjar. Renault bosses will unveil the C-segment SUV in an hour’s time, but we have for you one of the world’s first full live galleries of the Kadjar here.
The Kadjar is the French sister to Nissan’s latest Qashqai. Built on the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s CMF-CD platform, the curvy SUV measures 4,450 mm long, 1,840 mm wide and 1,600 mm tall.
Those dimensions means that it’s significantly bigger than younger sibling Captur (B-segment Clio based), but is shorter than the Nissan X-Trail and Honda CR-V, to give you some perspective. No Koleos name too, so that leaves room for another bigger SUV if Renault is interested.
While the Kadjar, like most crossovers, is expected to spend most of its time in the city, it has decent approach and departure angles of 18 and 25 degrees respectively, with a ground clearance of 190 mm. Good for climbing kerbs then!
Design-wise, the Kadjar is very clearly a Renault, carrying the French firm’s latest family face as seen on the new Espace, which has morphed into a crossover/MPV hybrid. LED lighting is used at both ends, and branded as such on the edges of the lamp housings, too. The rear end closely resembles the Clio’s – a good thing. Open the hatch and there’s a underfloor storage and levers on the sides to fold the rear seats flat.
Both front-wheel-drive and 4WD versions are available. The all-wheel-drive model features three modes – Auto, Lock (50:50, up to 40 km/h) and 2WD – controlled by a rotary dial behind the gear lever. All the display cars here feature an electronic parking brake, which should be standard across the board judging from the centre console design.
Two diesel engines and one petrol unit will be offered for now – the Energy dCi 110, Energy dCi 130 (130 hp/320 Nm) and Energy TCe 130 (130 hp/205 Nm), all turbocharged. The latter 1.2 litre petrol unit, paired to a six-speed manual gearbox, is said to boast the performance of a naturally-aspirated 2.0 litre engine.
It was revealed at the unveiling that the Kadjar will come in two variants – a rugged X-Mod (roof rails, grey skid plates, 17-inch wheels, mud + snow tyres) and the urban Bose edition. The latter boasts 19-inch wheels, gloss black mirror housings, Nappa leather steering and an eight-speaker Bose sound system, plus Bose logos on the door sills and front fender.
The Kadjar joins a hot SUV market, and Renault boss Carlos Ghosn thinks that the demand for such vehicles will remain strong. “These models offer great versatility, and all our research tells us people really enjoy that. Whether the trend will last 10 or 15 years I can’t say, but for the foreseeable future — which means the next four or five years — we think demand will be strong, not just in Europe but around the world. Cars like these make up one sale in four across the world, and one in three in China,” he told Autocar UK last month.
Renault will be hoping that the Kadjar follows the path of the Captur, which leads the B-segment SUV class in Europe. Built in Spain, the car will go on sale in Europe this summer.
At the unveiling, Renault’s chief designer Laurens van den Acker said that the Kadjar is a global car, and it will be built in China in the near future. Coming to the rest of Asia, too. Like what you see?
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Priced well, with a nice TCe engine, it will sell by the buckets in Malaysia, especially considering how currently the most decent mini SUV (sub CRV) is the 2008, and that has a rather ancient engine.
Ghosn is usually right, I’d bet they’ll sell this by the buckets.
But this is crv size. The sub crv Renault suv is Captur
TC Euro, please bring this here ASAP. Price it slightly below koleos( maybe same price as kuga). This might be a game changer for renault in msia
u are not welcomed here if u are lazy to convert it to a proper RHD car. and to all french car manufacturers, u can just pack and go back to where do u come from.
Tan Chong motors , please oh please bring this to Malaysia . Such beautiful Design . It will be a big hit as many malaysian are into small crossover now . Please and Thank You :)
Could prove to be TC euro cars saving grace…
that dashboard..what year is it?
Does Laurens van den Acker bring over his old day Mazda CX-7??? Definitely look very similar on side profile! Overall look nice!