Renault’s new flagship SUV leaked

Renault’s upcoming Espace has been leaked ahead of its March 28 reveal, which will serve as the brand’s new flagship SUV.

Autospy has published images from a what appears to be an owner’s manual, detailing how to access the third row.

They show the Espace will measure 4720mm long, 1830mm wide and 1645mm tall with a 2740mm wheelbase.

Compared with Renault’s current flagship SUV, the Koleos, it’s 47mm longer on a 35mm longer wheelbase but 13mm narrower and 22mm lower.

The leaked images show the ability to add six car seats which based on European safety standards does allow a child seat in the front passenger seat provided the airbag is disabled.

There’s no boot space capacity figure available yet, but Renault has confirmed the Espace’s interior will measure 2.48m long.

The Espace will be offered in either five- or seven-seat configurations.

The company recently revealed the Espace’s available panoramic glass roof, which it claims is larger than any on the market. It measures 1.33m long and 84cm wide.

Renault early this year teased a video of the new Espace, which is receiving a substantial redesign for its 40th anniversary.

Since its launch in 1984, the Espace has been a people mover, though in its most recent generation it received some crossover design cues.

For the new model, it now looks very much like a stretched version of the Austral crossover.

The brand has confirmed the Espace will sit on the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance CMF-C/D architecture which underpins the Mitsubishi Outlander, Nissan Trail, and Renault Austral.

The outgoing Espace also used the CMF-C/D architecture.

The upcoming Espace and Austral share similar side profiles with the headlights and tail lights looking virtually identical.

A longer and flatter roofline is evident on the Espace to make room for the third row of seats.

Currently, Renault only manufactures the Espace in left-hand drive however it’s unclear if the new model will be produced for right-hand drive markets.

Renault Australia hasn’t confirmed a local launch for the model, but has said it “could work well”.

It also confirmed the Koleos will continue locally for 2024 “and after that we don’t know”. The Koleos is built in Korea, and Renault Korea Motors is planning to roll out a range of medium-to-large SUVs for both that market and export markets.

One of these could prove to be a Koleos replacement. The new models will use platforms from Geely following the Chinese automaker’s acquisition of a third of Renault Korea Motors.

In March last year Renault released the latest Austral, which at this stage is not confirmed for Australia.

At the time of the Austral’s reveal in March last year, a spokesperson for the brand’s local distributor said “we will be putting our hand up for any right-hand drive product and then evaluating it for our market”.

The brand currently offers the Captur, Arkana and Koleos SUVs and Kangoo, Trafic and Master vans in its local line up, with the Megane R.S. hot hatch bowing out this year.

The new Megane E-Tech Electric will join the range later this year.