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A brand-new flagship Renault is due in our showrooms next year with the Rafale coupe-SUV promising to set new standards in the market.
The Rafale has a bold design with a vibrant and sporty silhouette while under the chiselled bonnet is a 200 hp E-Tech fully hybrid powertrain which is as efficient as it is frugal and uses recycled materials.
The Renault Rafale is the first production vehicle entirely designed according to the new visual language that Gilles Vidal has brought in as head of design Renault. It is ushering in a new era in Renault’s design. It is visionary, daring, perfectly in tune with its time and tailor-made for a period when everything is moving ever faster.
"The all new Rafale is a powerful illustration of the Renault brand's new design language. It is in keeping with its DNA through generous curves, treated with great precision, combined with lines of tension and technical details that bring character and sophistication to the whole. With its unprecedented style, quality craftsmanship and proportions, the all-new Renault Rafale asserts its power and personality on the road,” said Gilles.
Renault says its slightly raised fastback-style body ranks the all new Renault Rafale in the coupe SUV category with the long horizontal bonnet pointing to power.
The Renault Rafale is 4.71 metres long and 1.86 metres wide, squarely placing it in the D-segment. Added to which, it’s 1.61 metres high, making it a sporty SUV.
The car has a long wheelbase at 2.74 metres, while the roofline is flawlessly curved to provide plenty of headroom in the back seats and doesn’t impinge on the rear windscreen. The rear windscreen tilts 17 degrees, which is exactly right for aerodynamic efficiency. And it renders rear wipers unnecessary.
Meanwhile, its wider wheel track solidly grounds the vehicle and makes the most of the black parts of the wheels both from a vertical perspective (the wheels crop out slightly) and from a horizontal perspective (the 20-inch wheels fill the wheel arches).
Design features also include the novel radiator grille which is built around the brand’s hallmark diamond. It is made up of a constellation of small diamonds that arrange space in three dimensions around the emblem in the middle.
It stands out against the iron blue or shadow grey hues (depending on the version) that appear and disappear in the background depending on where you look at it from – like works of optical art in the 1970s.
There is also a Solarbay darkening glass roof designed to protect from the sun and can be voice controlled by Google Assistant or manual switches which change the light on all nine sections. As well as looking dramatic and being functional the glass roof also allows for an extra 30mm of headroom for passengers.
Technology runs through every inch of the car from the chassis stability through to the powertrain and the connectivity of the Rafale.
There are also several AI-powered capabilities inside the Renault Rafale, designed to help the driver and passengers. In many cases, the system proactively makes suggestions – for instance to switch off the air conditioning if a window is open or to switch it on if it is too warm inside. These proactive recommendations are based on routine patterns that the AI system picks up and analyses.
At launch the car will be available with the 200hp powertrain but plans are already well advanced for a E-Tech 4x4 300 hp version to join the line-up.