Mid-sized electric Renault SUV coming with hot Alpine version - report

Renault has a new all-electric SUV in development that’ll spawn a hot Alpine version.

Gilles Le Borgne, Renault’s vice president for engineering, told Auto Express the new SUV will slot between the recently revealed Renault Megane E-Tech Electric and the upcoming Ariya from fellow Alliance brand Nissan.

It’s set to debut at the 2022 Paris motor show, and is expected to go on sale in Europe in 2023.

It’ll use the new CMF-EV platform that underpins those SUVs, though the Renault version won’t be available with all-wheel drive. Instead, that’ll be exclusive to the Alpine model.

“It’s a bit early to talk about this car for Alpine, but it will be a really high-end car – four-wheel drive including torque vectoring,” said Mr Le Borgne.

The executive says the new SUV can accommodate a 60kWh battery, and that “the maximum energy on board will be 87kWh”.

With the latter option, it should achieve an electric range of around 500km and support 130kW DC rapid charging.

Auto Express says the front-wheel drive SUV will produce 160kW of power with the smaller battery and 178kW with the larger one.

Renault’s batteries measure just 110mm deep, maximising packaging efficiency.

The Ariya offers a choice of 65kWh and 90kWh batteries, while the Megane E-Tech Electric offers a choice of 40kWh and 60kWh batteries.

The 60kWh Megane model produces 165kW and 300Nm from its front-mounted electric motor.

Showing the potential of the upcoming Alpine SUV, the Ariya – when equipped with dual-motor all-wheel drive – puts out 250kW and 560Nm with the 65kWh battery and 290kW/600Nm with the 90kWh battery, the latter offering a claimed 5.1 second 0-100km/h time.

Expect a similarly modern interior to the Megane E-Tech Electric, with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 12.0-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen that can receive over-the-air updates.

The exterior styling of the Renault may borrow elements from the 2020 Morphoz electric concept, while Alpine has already released a shadowy teaser of the Alpine version’s front end.

While this new Renault SUV won’t offer a third row of seating, the CMF-EV platform can be stretched to up to 4.7m long with a wheelbase of up to 2780mm.

For reference, the mid-sized Koleos measures 4672mm long on a 2705mm wheelbase, while the current Kadjar is 4489mm long on a 2646mm wheelbase.

Mr Le Borgne says another CMF-EV-based Renault will be one of the seven new cars to be announced by 2025.

The electric Alpine SUV will join a next-generation all-electric sports car to replace the current A110, while the range will be completed with an electric hot hatch using the CMF-BEV platform of the upcoming Renault 5.

Auto Express reports the new Renault SUV will replace the Kadjar, however other reports indicate that model – discontinued in Australia earlier in 2021 – will receive an internal combustion engine-powered replacement.

A next-generation Kadjar has already been spied testing.

The outgoing Kadjar is closely related to the outgoing Nissan Qashqai, and a replacement was understood to use the updated CMF-C platform of the already revealed 2022 Qashqai.

This new SUV could instead serve as a replacement to the long-running Scenic MPV, which has seen its sales slide over the past decade as European buyers flock to crossovers.