Some months ago, everyone turned the spotlights to Mercedes-Benz and the latest member of its commercial vehicles’ line, the badge-engineered Citan. But this release also brought the memory that Kangoo, the French multivan whose project was used to create the German sibling, was completing four years at the current generation without having any style changes. Renault now takes the opportunity to give some updates which may not create design revolutions, but have a great importance to the car’s market position.
Do you know what does “kangoo” stand for? This word doesn’t have any meaning, actually. Renault used a computer program to create random pronounceable letter combinations until they liked this one, which they used to baptize their very first multivan, which came in 1998 to fight this category’ pioneers, PSA’s Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner, and Fiat Doblò a few years later. But if the French twins tried to look like a conventional car as much as possible, the other two wanted to stand out in the crowd: like the Italian rival, the first Kangoo used very creative shapes and bright colors to compose a playful appearance, rather than discreet. But they all agreed to offer huge space for people and/or cargo (there were several body options) with resistant structures and inexpensive trim levels, which didn’t take long to result at a very successful quartet. They’ve started to receive the second generation around the tenth year, in which PSA only upgraded the original concept, while Fiat made Doblò much more elegant. Renault, in turn, decided to evolve Kangoo’s initial idea. The pictures show a more solid version of the first generation’s design, maintaining vivid colors and shapes but also receiving a new option: named Be Bop for passengers or Compact for cargo, it has smaller height and wheelbase, achieving a “cuter design” which makes it more suitable for companies with lighter demands.
And after shrinking at the beginning, this generation received the electric Z.E. version and ended with an enlargement: the second Grand Kangoo was also an extended-wheelbase option for both uses, but also like the first one there was a big surprise concerning the design: having the cost reduction as a priority resulted at very questionable design solutions, such as brutally stretched last columns at the first and rear fenders at the second. Nevertheless, worrying about award-winning designs or not is what creates the biggest difference between Kangoo and Scénic, to keep the comparisons in Renault’s showroom. These pictures show the rational van of those, and that’s why there weren’t great investments at this facelift. The entire front was restyled in order to syncronize this car with Renault’s current design language, which includes big headlights and the already famous V-shaped grille highlighting the brand’s logo – the Z.E. version adds the blue-chrome details seen at the photos and sets the charging port under the logo. Internally, there’s new dashboard and the R-Link infotainment system. Since this car focuses at the commercial use, there’s only one gasoline engine option, the 1.2 TCe – all the others use diesel, generating from 75 to 110 hp.
02/28/2012 update: Now it was time for releasing the facelifted Kangoo’s passenger version, after commercial and electric variations. The visual changes are the exact same here, but restricted to the medium-wheelbase vehicle, which has also received two new trim levels: besides Life, Zens and Intens there will be Business and Extrem. The first one is focused on companies, while the second deserved to appear in the most recent official pictures. Like PSA has done with Citroën Berlingo XTR and Peugeot Partner Tepee, now it’s Renault’s time to offer an “off-road inspiration” for this multivan, with 15” wheels, exclusive external stickers, chrome details and roof rack, while the cabin receives two-tone coating. It was also revealed that Kangoo will have hill-start assistance and stability control as standard items, with the R-Link infotainment system as an optional. The diesel engine options will actually be the same dCi 1.5L, with 75, 90 or 110 hp of power, while there will be only the 115-hp TCe with gasoline.
