“This was a smart project,” added Fabregat. “We had white space from the beginning, so we had space to find a recipe. We have an amazing platform and product with the Captur, so the goal was to take what people loved about that car and apply it to the larger C-segment.
“When we designed the latest Captur we wanted to keep the rear design similar to the previous generation model to help it be identifiable, but we did a lot of work at the front. So we followed that front with the Symbioz but then had freedom to develop a new answer for the rear end.”
While the front is nearly identical, the designers had more freedom with the rest of the car, creating flowing side panels and a bespoke rear end that includes sculpted lights featuring a 3D ‘ice cube’ effect. Entry-level cars sit on 18in wheels; pricier ones get 19s.
The cabin features the same dashboard as the Captur, which includes a portrait-oriented 10.4in touchscreen running Renault’s Google-based OpenR Link infotainment system.
The rear seats can slide 160mm backwards, meaning they can offer up to 221mm of knee room or expand the boot capacity from 492 litres to an impressive 624 – which rises to 1582 with those 60:40-split seats folded down.
