The sub-compact SUV segment is a tough place to be in. Nissan recently waged a price war against its rival with the launch of Magnite and now, Renault seems to be all geared up to follow suit with its Kiger. After a lot of anticipation, Renault has finally announced that the Kiger will be unveiled on January 28. The Kiger was unveiled in its concept form sometime back but has already been spotted on multiple occasions. It was first codenamed HBC but then Renault made it official that it will indeed be called Kiger in its production form.
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The pre-production version of the Kiger developed quite some hype around it, especially because of its funky design and the carmaker’s claim that the production-spec car would borrow 80 per cent of the styling cues from the show car.
Talking about the spied test mules of the Kiger, the test mules looked like a beefed-up version of the Renault Kwid, just like the show car. Another interesting thing to note here is the presence of spruced up roof, hinting at the blacked-out floating roof design seen in the show car. Just like the show car, Renault’s logo is positioned in the centre of the grille that also extends into the hood. The test mule too, seemed to have a split headlamp design with tri-LED projectors housed in the bumper with an LED strip along the bonnet line.
The sporty bumper accompanied by a front skid plate is also visible in the image. The show car had green accents splattered all over its bodywork but the inserts aren’t visible in the test mule because of the heavy camouflage. We won’t be surprised if Renault decides to drop the green accents in the production version of the Kiger, to make it appeal to a wider spectrum of audience. The side profile too, looked similar to that of the show car. The wide wheel arches and the alloy wheels are clearly visible in the spy picture although the design of the alloy wheels does seem to be toned down a little.
In terms of features, however, the Kiger is expected to match the Magnite. It is likely to get an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, digital instrument cluster connected car tech, air purifier, premium audio system, and cruise control. For safety, the Kiger will come equipped with dual airbags, 360-degree camera, ABS with EBD, and tyre pressure monitoring system.
Under the hood, the Kiger will get the option of the Triber’s 72PS 1.0-litre petrol engine and a new 100PS HRA0 1.0-litre turbo-petrol engine. The naturally aspirated unit comes with a 5-speed manual gearbox as standard. The turbo-petrol engine, on the other hand, gets a CVT in addition to the 5-speed manual transmission.