Renault confirms seven-seat Koleos

The replacement for Renault Australia's second biggest seller, the Koleos SUV, will be significantly larger and will house up to seven seats when it's revealed next year, the French car-maker has confirmed.

It was clear from spy shots snapped just last month that the Koleos' successor would grow in all directions, but now Renault has revealed exactly how much bigger it will be.

Renault's global sales and marketing chief Jerome Stoll said at this week's Frankfurt motor show that, at 4650mm, the next Koleos will be a whole 130mm longer than the model it replaces.

That will not only make Renault's flagship SUV more than 100mm longer than Australia's top-selling SUV, the Mazda CX-5, but significantly larger than the mid-size Kadjar SUV, which will not be sold in Australia, let alone the small Captur SUV.

Stoll also confirmed that, for the first time a Renault SUV, the next Koleos will be available with seven seats, matching three-row mid-size SUVs like the Nissan X-TRAIL and Mitsubishi Outlander.

He said Renault was yet to decide whether the Koleos name would continue, but cautioned that a decision was yet to be made.

"We have to be careful because launching new names is very easy on PowerPoint," he said.

The current Koleos remains the only Renault Australia model to be sourced from South Korea following the axing of the Fluence and Latitude sedans.

Based on the same Renault Nissan Alliance Common Family Module (CFM) platform that underpins the Nissan QASHQAI and X-TRAIL, the new model will again be produced by Renault Samsung Motors.

It will also be built in China for domestic consumption, but continued Korean production means Renault Australia will be able to take advantage of a free trade agreement and shorter delivery times than it can for its European-sourced models.

When the Koleos replacement arrives in Australia some time in 2017, its predecessor will be almost nine years old. Launched here in 2008, it received a major facelift in 2011 and a minor update in May, when a reversing camera, touch-screen and sat-nav became standard across the range.

The new Koleos is likely to bring Renault's latest R-Link infotainment system and the same large portrait-style colour touch-screen as the next Megane, which arrives here in the second half of 2016.

Like the new Megane, it's also likely to be powered by four-cylinder turbo-petrol and diesel engines, matched to manual and automatic transmissions.

Sales of the current Koleos, which is priced between $28,490 and $42,490 and available in 4x2 and 4x4 configuration, are up 22 per cent this year, with 1150 sold to August.