A trip to the grocery store turned into a
frenetic ‘where’s my phone’ moment for yours truly, as I crossed paths with two
test cars: the next-generation Dacia Logan and a rather mysterious Renault
Twingo. Both cars seemed to be coming from the Dacia factory in Romania, near Bucharest,
and were apparently heading towards the mountains.
The budget-friendly compact sedan had way
more plastic cladding compared to last time we saw it, but part of the grille
was visible, sporting horizontal chrome slats similar to the latest Duster. The
headlights seem a bit smaller, while the taillights have a similar square
shape.
The car retains the overall proportions of
its predecessor, despite being built on a simplified variant of the CMF-B
platform. Renault’s architecture is also used by the latest Clio supermini and
Captur small crossover, and supports electrification. It is understood that the
new Logan will offer a hybrid powertrain, probably the 138 HP unit found in the Clio E-Tech, and could gain several mild-hybrids later on,
likely attached to the usual 1.0-liter three-pot petrol and 1.5-liter four-pot
diesel engines.
Both the new Logan and Sandero, which is essentially
the former’s five-door hatchback version, are believed to premiere this fall.
As for the mysterious Renault Twingo test car that followed the 2021 Logan, we
don’t really know what it is. The French A-segment hatch was already facelifted
in 2019, five years after production of the third generation commenced.
