Vanel didn’t rule out the powertrain – developed in Renault’s HORSE partnership with Chinese car giant Geely – coming in future, but emphasised pure electric was a more likely drivetrain solution. And the Korean gearbox – an electrified continuously variable transmission – doesn’t dovetail with European tastes.
But the Filante will influence our Renaults. “It will feed Europe in terms of components and our competitiveness,” said Renault brand chief Fabrice Cambolive. Renault is going on an international offensive, investing €3 billion (£2.6bn) in eight models for Korea, Latin America, North Africa and India to roll out by 2027, with the goal of doubling international revenue.
Renault’s bespoke Korean models – it also sells the Grand Koleos, a smaller, boxier SUV – have electronic architectures that are test-beds for over-the-air (OTA) software updates, to iron out glitches and bring new features to cars. Vanel reckoned Renault was heading towards one million OTA updates with the Grand Koleos, with multiple upgrades across the 50,000 models in Korean hands. “[In Europe], we are benchmarking how we’ve managed to be so efficient in Korea with OTA updates,” he told us.
“Technological trends are coming more and more from Asia,” the product boss added. The Filante spreads out three 12.3-inch touchscreens across the entire dash, with the passenger alone getting one to stream movies and surf the web. Or they can even zoom through sticky traffic ahead, playing a ‘Mario Kart’-style game which overlays your play on live pictures from the forward-facing camera. But future European dashboards will have more subtle displays, likely with a band of digital readouts at the windscreen’s base, as on BMW’s new iX3.
