Already seen in a succession of spy images last year, the report from Australia’s motoring.com.au further confirms previous claims that the latest model to be styled by Design boss, Laurens van Den Acker, will incorporate a number of autonomous driving aids that will result in the Clio becoming the first in its class to have Level 2 self-driving capability.
As previously indicated, the Clio will switch to alliance partner Nissan’s CMF-B platform that currently underpins the Micra, with the autonomous tech in question consisting of items such as Lane Keeping Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Warning and Active Park Assist to name but a few.
Just as big will the changes up front where the long-serving 898cc three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and boosted 1.2-litre four-cylinder will make way for a new 1.0-litre triple, as well as the 1.3-litre four-pot co-developed with Daimler. The 1.5 dCi will likely be carried over albeit revised, while a plug-in hybrid and all-electric model will debut at a later stage.
On the performance side, the Clio RS will swap the 1.6-litre turbocharged engine for the same 1.8-litre turbo as the Megane RS and Alpine A110, although with an expected output of 165kW, the same as the current Clio RS 220. Despite the new engine, the Clio RS is reportedly set to be offered only with a dual-clutch gearbox in spite of a six-speed manual being available on its bigger sibling.
“If you look at the numbers, we roughly sold the same number of Clio IV RS that we did Clio III RS, except we didn’t sell them in the same markets. In a manual market like UK, it was not very well received, but in other markets its reception was just great, such as in Japan, where it works very well. So that’s compensation,”Renault Sport Head of International Sales, Jean Calcat, told Australia’s goauto.com.au last year.
“Now, the product is reaching the end of its lifespan, so we will not invest with going with a manual gearbox. The ideal car would have been the Clio 16 Concept, and we really looked at producing it in small quantities like we did with the Clio V6. Our managing director Patrice Ratti really wanted to market the car, but at the end of the day, we had to accept the fact from the pure profitability standpoint it didn’t make any sense”.
Based on an extract published by the online publication derived from the brand’s annual sales report, the Clio is set to arrive during the second quarter of 2019 after bowing in Geneva.
