PARIS -- Renault has revealed a concept of its next generation of the Kangoo light commercial van, which will appear next year as an all-new model, with a different platform than used in the current version, which has been in production since 2007.
The new Kangoo was shown as a battery electric concept called the Kangoo Z.E.
Renault said it is a "clean sheet" design. The concept is about 80 percent of what the production version will look like. It will be built on a shared Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance platform, executives said at the unveiling on Tuesday. They declined to specify which platform would be used.
The Kangoo is classified as a "car derived van," meaning it is built on passenger car architecture. It ranked third in European car-derived van sales in 2018, according to figures from JATO Dynamics, with 73,123 sales, behind two PSA Group models, the Peugeot Partner, with 89,412 sales, and the Citroen Berlingo, with 92,452 sales. The latest generation of PSA car-derived vans, including an Opel/Vauxhall version, went on sale toward the end of 2018.
Renault said the Kangoo concept "was designed like a passenger car" with deeply sculpted sides, large wheel arches and pronounced "shoulders" at the rear.
Renault design chief, Laurens van den Acker, said that earlier versions of the Kangoo had a "form follows function" design, but the next Kangoo's styling was more fluid, dynamic and muscular, with more personality.
The front-end design, with a wraparound light bar, reflects Renault's passenger-vehicle styling. That theme has been carried over to facelifted versions of the Trafic small van and Master midsize van, which were also shown Tuesday.
Renault officials said they would not comment on whether there would also be a Mercedes-Benz Citan version of the new Kangoo. The two models are produced at Renault's plant in Maubeuge, France, along with a Nissan version, the NV250.
News reports in Germany last week said that Daimler, which has cross shareholdings with Renault and Nissan, was considering allowing production and engineering projects with Renault and Nissan to lapse.
