Next Renault Koleos to remain five-seat

Renault’s vital new Koleos will arrive in Australia without a vital SUV ingredient -- a seven-seat option – when the redesigned mid-size crossover goes on sale here in September.

This is despite confirmation from Renault last year that the new Koleos will be produced with three rows of seats for the first time thanks to an overall length that's a whole 130mm longer than the model it replaces.

Speaking to motoring.com.au yesterday, Renault Australia managing director Justin Hocevar confirmed the new Koleos will be launched Down Under in just four months with only five seats like its slow-selling, eight-year-old predecessor.

“I know there’s been some reports of a seven seater. [But for Australia] I would be more inclined to write it off, before saying it is possible.”

When it made its global debut in Beijing last month, the new Koleos appeared with just five seats.

Providing further potential evidence that a three-row version of the bigger new SUV will not be forthcoming, at least initially, Hocevar said Renault Australia was now considering the local release of the next Grand Scenic because of the redesigned seven-seat people-mover's more SUV-like appearance.

The local Renault chief said that despite the fact “a lot of markets are asking for it [a seven-seat Koleos], at the moment the focus is on having a five-seater with a really generous second row. It will take an almost class-leadership position in terms of second-row comfort.”

Australia will be one of the first markets in the global Koleos roll-out, and it can’t come quickly enough, said Hocevar.

“We’re one of the very first markets to launch globally. I think we’re almost a year ahead of Europe," he said..

"We’ve pretty much run out of the old Koleos. Last month will be I think the last month we have any registrations of significance on that car. We’re pretty much out of stock. We have a little bit of a gap for a few months, and then we can hit it again with the new model.”

Despite the lack of a third row of seats – as seen in popular mid-size SUVs like the Nissan X-TRAIL, Hocevar is confident the new Koleos will prove popular for Renault here.

“It’s a stronger design, a less polarising design, than the outgoing model. It really opens up its appeal to a broader audience. We’ve also got better traction in the market -- with brand awareness and our dealer footprint.

"We’re sitting at 53 dealers at the moment -- at the end of the year we’ll be at 60. That’ll improve our share."

Hocevar would not be drawn on expected sales for the new Koleos, only saying that Renault would not be chasing big volumes.

“Compared to, say, some mass-volume brands that have, say, 200-300 dealers, from a dealer point of view we’re not going to compete on that scale.”

The new Koleos is based on Renault-Nissan's latest (CMF) platform architecture and will feature similar off-road features to its rugged Japanese cousin, the X-TRAIL. These include three switchable drive modes (2WD, 4WD auto, 4WD lock). It will also be offered in 2WD format.

The interior has a large portrait-oriented central touch-screen and even the instrument cluster is now a high-definition screen.

Named the R-Link 2 system, the upmarket infotainment display is hooked up to BOSE audio systems, navigation, Bluetooth and several advanced semi-autonomous driver aids, the latter allowing the car to brake, accelerate and park itself.