Renault has revealed the name and some teaser images of a brand-new model designed to plug the gap between its small SUV and mid-size SUV offerings. The Renault Symbioz will be a C-segment alternative to cars like the Nissan Qashqai and Kia Niro, and will be offered with a hybrid powertrain from launch.
The Symbioz name is derived from the ancient Greek word ‘symbiosis’, which means ‘living together’. Renault’s head of naming strategy Sylvia Dos Santos wanted a badge with “human significance”, claiming Symbioz expresses the “close bond between a family and their car.”
The Symbioz will sit between the Captur and Austral SUVs in Renault’s petrol and hybrid model range.
Find out more in our Renault Symbioz forum.
Renault announce new Symbioz compact SUV
Not sure why they need another car in an already crowded market segment that they, let's face it, don't have a significant slice of.
I don't think its quite as striking as the Austral from the outside but, despite being slightly smaller in outer dimensions, it does address one of the Austral's biggest failings -boot space. Compared to the class leading Tucson and Sportage the Austral is, whilst far from worst in the class, a poor performer in that area considering it's almost the same outer footprint as those two.
Another area where the Austral could have been slightly improved is unfortunately carried over to the Symbioz though, that of the high mid-line through the body. The Austral would have benefitted from the mid-line just being a couple of inches lower down so that the passenger and rear windows where a tad bigger to make the car feel a little airier inside. Particularly if you are carrying smaller children who maybe suffer with travel sickness. The Symbioz looks to be as bad if not a tad worse in this regard which is a bit of a miss.
I don't think its quite as striking as the Austral from the outside but, despite being slightly smaller in outer dimensions, it does address one of the Austral's biggest failings -boot space. Compared to the class leading Tucson and Sportage the Austral is, whilst far from worst in the class, a poor performer in that area considering it's almost the same outer footprint as those two.
Another area where the Austral could have been slightly improved is unfortunately carried over to the Symbioz though, that of the high mid-line through the body. The Austral would have benefitted from the mid-line just being a couple of inches lower down so that the passenger and rear windows where a tad bigger to make the car feel a little airier inside. Particularly if you are carrying smaller children who maybe suffer with travel sickness. The Symbioz looks to be as bad if not a tad worse in this regard which is a bit of a miss.
