Yesterday very ugly, the Renault Grand Koleos is now stunning

Born from the technical partnership with the Chinese Geely, the new Renault Grand Koleos runs on gasoline and targets only Asia.

French luxury. This is essentially the marketing approach advocated by Renault to relaunch itself in Asia, with a positioning much more high-end than in the past. Its first market will be South Korea, where the French group has had a factory since its acquisition of Samsung’s automotive division.

This factory is now shared by the growing ambitions of the Chinese giant Geely, which signed a major technical and industrial partnership with Renault at the beginning of 2024. It is now clear that this rapprochement took place even earlier, as this new Grand Koleos SUV is a re-skinned Geely Monjaro. This model has been sold in China since 2021 for a price close to 15,000 euros!

Made in China

Measuring 4.78 meters long, this large model did not leave a lasting impression in Europe where the uninspired design of its predecessor was a profound commercial failure. We now discover a vehicle with a much sexier design featuring elements reminiscent of the Audi Q8 here and there.

Under the hood, it features a hybrid gasoline engine producing 245 horsepower, with the 1.5-liter turbo engine alone generating 144 horsepower. The assistance of two electric motors provides an additional 100 horsepower. A fully thermal version offers 211 horsepower via a 2.0-liter turbo gasoline engine paired with a dual-clutch transmission.

Inside, the abundance of LCD screens is stunning with a fully digitized dashboard. The presentation is flattering, but what about the materials in a car – the Geely Monjaro – that is so inexpensive? It doesn’t matter, since no intention to import has been expressed by Renault where competition with the Scenic, Austral, Rafale, and Espace would be problematic…

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