Renault launches its all-new Austral, a new mid-sized SUV

BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT, France - Renault has added a new model to its SUV range – the Renault Austral. Set to be manufactured in Spain, the Austral is designed with the goal of strengthening Renault’s presence in the small and medium family car segment, given its core of the global automotive market.

Safety in Renault’s Austral is taken care of with a total of 32 Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Multi-Sense settings and Renault’s third-generation 4CONTROL Advanced steering system.

The Austral will come in three variants: two mild hybrids and one full hybrid, all running on Renault’s E-Techpowertrains. The full hybrid comes equipped with a 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine paired with an electric motor using a 1.7 kWh lithium-ion battery, producing a combined power output of 200hp. Renault claims it will have a fuel efficiency of 4.6l/100km.

The mild hybrid version of the Austral will have a 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine with a 48V lithium-ion battery that produces 130hp. Renault states that its fuel economy is rated at 5.3l/100km. While the launch edition of the base model Austral mild hybrid will only have a manual gearbox, we’re not ruling out the possibility of an automatic transmission version eventually getting a launch within the car’s life cycle.

We reckon that this would be perfect for Singapore’s Category A COE as the power output place it directly under the maximum limit, unlike the Kia Niro Hybrid which had to be detuned slightly from international versions to make it into the Category A segment here.

The second mild hybrid variant of the car utilises the same 1.3 litre 4-cylinder turbocharged direct injection petrol engine that is currently available on many Renault vehicles including the Captur. Developed in collaboration with Daimler, the engine is backed up by a starter motor and a 12V lithium-ion battery in the Austral. It will be available in two states of tune with either 140hp or 160hp with the X-Tronic automatic transmission, or with just 140hp on a manual model.

Inside, the Austral boasts a roomy interior with  Renault’s OpenR screen display. It shows the instrument panel, navigation and multimedia systems which have integrated Google services and applications. There are a total of two 12-inch screens plus a 9.3-inch projection display, creating a total screen area of ​​nearly 1,000 cm2.

Safety in Renault’s Austral is taken care of with a total of 32 Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Multi-Sense settings and Renault’s third-generation 4CONTROL Advanced steering system.

In France, orders for the Austral began in September 2022 and deliveries will begin in December 2022. Renault Singapore has no projected release date for its newly launched Austral yet. However, as there has been little in the way of new Renault models to sell in Singapore recently, we think that it will be a welcome release here.

This article was first published in CarBuyer.