With primary focus on China, initially.
French concern Renault have confirmed the debut of their stylish City K-ZE small crossover, based on the concept of similar name that was seen at the Paris Auto Show last year. Its debut at the Shanghai Auto Show on the 16th of April signals Renault’s intent to focus this vehicle on the lucrative Chinese market; However, the K-ZE will eventually be introduced in other markets where deemed prudent.
The K-ZE Concept from 2018 looked very much like Renault’s likeable Kwid compact SUV, dressed up as an EV for Halloween. It had the filled-in face, the light-blue aesthetic addenda (because that’s evidently the it-colour for ZEVs), and it even had its own matching charging station.
It’ll be interesting to see how much of the Concept is retained going into production, as we reckon a lightly watered-down version of the K-ZE Concept would prove to be very popular across the globe. Unfortunately we can’t speak of any technical details because Renault hasn’t provided any, sans the claim that it’ll do about 250km per charge on the NEDC cycle (so realistically, about 200km).
There’s also been no mention of the platform underpinning the K-ZE, which means it could be some variation of the platform under the Nissan Leaf, or not. That’s important because, if we know it uses a modified version of the Leaf’s underpinnings, we can also then assume that the K-ZE will offer some version of Nissan’s ProPilot advance driver assistance systems. More details and specifics will be screwed down when the K-ZE makes its full debut next week, so stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you more updates as they come.
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