Small minivans based on commercial vans have long been popular in Europe, but it looks like Renault is about to make its offering, the Kangoo Combispace, usefully bigger. The Kangoo, which is twinned with the Mercedes Citan, launched in 2021 and is currently available in short-wheelbase form as either a conventional van without windows or a five-seat MPV. A long wheelbase panel van has been confirmed for this year, but as these spy shots show, Renault is also turning that stretched Kangoo commercial into a practical seven-seat minivan.
Like the five-seat version already on
sale, this new Kangoo features conventional front doors and rear sliding doors.
But a wheelbase stretch allows Renault’s engineers to slot a third row of seats
into the cargo area. The five-seat van already offers up to 3,500
liters of load space, so its big brother is going to be cavernous once those
two rear rows of seats have been folded or removed.
Powertrains are likely to broadly mirror
those in the five-seat Kangoo, which means a choice of 1.3-liter, four-cylinder
turbocharged petrol or a 1.5-liter diesel engines. Five-seater buyers get to
pick from 99 hp and 128 hp versions of the gas motor, and
three tunes of diesel, ranging from 74 hp to 113 hp, but it’s
possible that Renault will limit availability to the punchier options to offset
the longer Kangoo’s additional curb weight.
Renault is also likely to add an EV option
into that mix before long. More than 70,000 electric Kangoo panel vans have
been sold since 2011 and the third generation version, dubbed E-Tech Electric,
hits European markets this year. The zero-emissions, zero-side-windows Kangoo
produces 121 hp and 245 Nm of torque, and is paired with
a 45 kWh battery that offers a range of 300 km according to the
WLTP cycle. And that same powertrain will almost certainly be offered in its
seven-seat passenger-focused alter ego.
