2025 Renault Koleos finally revealed! But what are the chances of this 'Grand' hybrid SUV coming to Australia to battle the Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5 and Nissan X-Trail?

Renault has finally revealed a new-generation Koleos - but it’s not what you think.

Freshly revealed at this week’s Busan motor show in South Korea, the new model – dubbed the Grand Koleos – adopts a bolder, more modern look than the ageing medium SUV sold in Australia.

But rather than sharing its underpinnings with Alliance partner Nissan’s X-Trail again, the new Grand Koleos is actually related to the Volvo XC40.

It is built using Volvo parent company Geely Group’s Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) that forms the basis of the XC40 and C40, as well as the Polestar 2 and a selection of Lynk & Co and Geely models, including the Monjaro SUV.

At 4780mm long it is 108mm longer and has a 115mm-longer wheelbase than the current Koleos.

Despite Renault’s own alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi, the French giant has forged closer ties with China’s Geely in recent years, with the latter acquiring a one third stake in Renault Korea in 2022.

Since then the pair have teamed up on powertrain and future model development.

Built at Renault Korea’s Busan plant, the Grand Koleos’ chances for an Australian launch are unclear, but CarsGuide has reached out to Renault’s local importer for more information.

It will be offered in petrol and hybrid guise in Korea. The E-Tech hybrid uses a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine with a dual-motor setup and battery for a total system output of 183kW of power.

The 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine delivers power of 157kW and is paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Inside there is a much more modern interior than the current model, with a three screen setup consisting of a 12.3-inch TFT cluster, a 12.3-inch centre display and a 12.3-inch passenger display for Korean-market models, based on the Google Automotive platform. There’s also a massive 25.6-inch augmented reality head-up display.

The current Koleos has been around in Australia since September 2016 and by the time it went on sale, the model it is based on - the previous-generation Nissan X-Trail - had already been on the market for more than two years.

So after almost eight years on sale, it is one of the oldest models in the SUV segment.

To the end of May this year Renault has sold 503 examples of the Koleos, which is down by 67 per cent compared with the same period in 2023.

It is outselling its French-branded rivals – Peugeot’s 3008 (184) and the Citroen C5 Aircross (17) – by a decent margin, as well as the Skoda Karoq (387), but is much further away from big hitters like the Mazda CX-5 (9233) and Toyota RAV4 (21,498).