√2023 Renault Espace seven-seat SUV a chance for Australia
Renault is slated to reboot the Espace name – which popularised the people mover in Europe 40 years ago – as an SUV later this year, but Australian plans are unclear.
The Renault Espace people mover – which pioneered and popularised the category in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s – is set to be rebooted later this year as seven-seat family SUV.
It is yet to be confirmed for Renault’s Australian showrooms – and whether it would sit alongside, or succeed, the Koleos family SUV, which is seven years old and due for replacement.
“We will put our hand up for anything available in right-hand-drive, assuming it would be commercially viable,” Glen Sealey, Renault Australia general manager, told Drive.
If the decision is made to green-light the new Espace for Australia, Drive understands local showroom arrivals would be 12 to 18 months behind Europe – where it is due to launch in the second half of 2023.
“We’re a long way from that study [of its feasibility for local showrooms]. For Australia, we’re typically 12 to 18 months behind, so we’ve got plenty of time,” Mr Sealey told Drive.
If it is approved for sale, the new model would be the first Renault Espace to be sold in Australia. Renault Australia has never offered a people mover larger than the Megane hatchback-based Scenic and Grand Scenic of the 2000s.
The original Espace, launched in 1984, was one of the first modern car-derived people movers in Europe – and soon popularised the concept over five generations, spawning waves of European and Japanese competitors.
However, sales of people movers have declined over the past decade amid the rise of SUVs – with Renault Espace deliveries in 2019 down 85 per cent on 1999 figures.
The previous-generation Espace – which was not built in right-hand drive – retained the people-mover body style offered since launch in 1984, but introduced a higher ride height and some SUV styling cues.
However the new Espace is due to commit to the SUV body type, as spy photos show it will be a stretched version of the Austral mid-size SUV – due in Australia at the end of 2023, pending any delays – with the option of third-row seating.
Given the Austral is on the smaller end of the mid-size SUV category – and closer to a small SUV, such as a Nissan Qashqai or Mazda CX-30 – the new Espace’s third-row seats may not be as roomy as Espace people movers of old.
Rivals are likely to include enlarged mid-size SUVs with seven-seat options such as the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace, Peugeot 5008, Nissan X-Trail and Mitsubishi Outlander.
The new Renault Espace will be twinned under the skin with the Nissan and Mitsubishi models – as well as the Austral, and the Nissan Qashqai – on the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance’s CMF-CD architecture for mid-size family SUVs.
That is likely to mean a range of three- and four-cylinder turbocharged engines with mild-hybrid technology, or a full E-Tech Hybrid model that claims to consume about five litres of fuel per 100km.
The arrival of the Renault Espace will coincide with the seventh birthday for the existing Renault Koleos SUV – which is due to be succeeded by a new model, but is seemingly without a direct replacement.
The twin to the Renault Koleos, the Nissan X-Trail, entered a new generation in Australia last year, but it is unclear if a new Koleos is on the horizon.
As previously reported by Drive, the Koleos is safe until the end of 2024 – however its future beyond 2025 is unclear. The Espace could be a suitable replacement, as it is expected to be a similar size.
However, it may not be possible to price the new model similarly – as the Koleos is built in South Korea, while the Espace is expected to be made in Europe, which would incur higher shipping (and possibly manufacturing) costs.
Australia also has a free-trade deal with South Korea – removing the five per cent import tariff – but it is yet to finalise a similar agreement with the European Union.
The 2023 Renault Espace is due to be unveiled in the northern-hemisphere spring of 2023 (March to May) – which would likely correlate to first European showroom arrivals in the second half of this year.
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