Renault unveiled the name of its future high-end coupe SUV on Tuesday. And, little surprise, the diamond brand has chosen a new surname: the Rafale.
No more searching, the name of Renault’s future high-end coupe SUV is known. And the French brand has decided to innovate when many were expecting the name “Austral coupé” or “Espace coupé”, the manufacturer’s last two SUVs released in 2022 and 2023 respectively. it will now be necessary to add the name of Rafale to the range of the diamond brand.
The choice of the name Rafale is no coincidence and brings us back to the glorious history of Renault as an aeronautical engine manufacturer in the 1930s. At the time, Renault, a pioneer in the manufacture of internal combustion engines for cars, bought the manufacturer Caudron in 1933 to create the Renault-Caudron company. The following year, all planes took the name of a wind, among them the C460, a single-seat racing plane, which became the Rafale.
For the brand, “this Rafale name is immediately associated with technology, performance, daring, and also driving pleasure and agility.” The top-of-the-range coupé SUV, whose commercial launch is scheduled for 2024, should complement the models with E-Tech hybrid Austral and Espace engines and strengthen Renault’s offer in the D segment. It will position itself as the new flagship of the range and should be a cheaper alternative to German SUVs like the Audi Q5 Sportback and BMW X4.
For its launch, the Renault Rafale, taking over the CMF-CD base of the Austral and Espace, should benefit from the 200 hp hybrid engine. Not enough to panic the counters, the brand remaining faithful to its policy of capping the speed of its new models at 180 km / h. However, it is rumored that the French manufacturer would like it to benefit from a new 280 hp rechargeable hybrid engine, a little more in line with its high-end positioning.
The wait to find out more about the new Renault Rafale, with its more aggressive style like the latest models born under the thumb of designer Gilles Vidal debauched at Peugeot in 2020, will not be very long. The high-end SUV from the diamond brand will be presented in just over a month, on June 18, in a world premiere at the 54th International Aeronautics and Space Show at Le Bourget. A place, there too, not chosen at random… With such a date of presentation, the official release of the model could take place before the end of the year 2023.