New Renault Espace TEASED – looks like a stretched Austral

A new Renault Espace is teased to be on the way, no longer an MPV but a seven-seat stretched Renault Austral SUV.

There was a time when the Renault Espace was the MPV to have, but its appeal waned as buyers opted for SUVs instead of MPVs and it hasn’t been sold in the UK for years.

But there’s a new Renault Espace on the way – teased in the image above – which takes the Espace down the SUV road.

Looking at the image it seems almost certain that the new Espace is in fact a stretched Austral SUV, with an extra bit on the back and a slightly higher roofline, set to come with a three-row seating arrangement as Renault’s competition for the new seven-seat Nissan X-Trail, with which it shares a platform.

The powertrain options for the new Espace look set to be similar to the Austral, including a hybrid version with a 1.2-litre turbo three-pot petrol mated to an electric motor delivering either 157bhp or 197bhp, and a mild hybrid petrol with either 138bhp or 157bhp.

With the Espace not on sale in the UK for a long time it seems logical that Renault won’t be offering the new Espace in the UK, but as it’s basically a stretched Austral, which is sold in the UK, perhaps it will?