2016 Renault New Cars

Master bus — January

A 12-seater light bus version of the popular Renault Master arrives to kick off the French brand’s 2016.

The latest iteration of the Master range — number two in segment behind the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter — will square off against the Toyota HiAce Commuter, which offers as many as 14 seats and is priced just shy of $60K at the top level.

Given about every airport shuttle service uses these trusty Toyotas, there should be a good market niche for this French offering, backed by the company’s Pro + network.

Megane — September

The slick new Renault Megane range will arrive to tackle the Volkswagen Golf and Peugeot 308 later next year.

The substantially iteration of Renault’s small car — this year, with 1315 sales, it’s only the company’s fifth most popular model — will be available in three variants at first.

The range-topper will be a 151kW/280Nm 1.6-litre turbocharged GT with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and a 0-100km/h time of 7.1 seconds. This will headline until the new five-door-only RS model arrives in 2017.

The entry model will be the turbocharged 1.2-litre manual TCe 130 with 97kW of power and 205Nm of torque. The turbo-diesel offering will be the 1.5-litre with 81kW and 250Nm of torque, offered with a seven-speed dual-clutch only.

Renault’s new-generation small hatch measures 4359mm long and 1447mm tall, making it 64mm longer but 25mm lower than its predecessor, while riding on a 28mm longer wheelbase.

Koleos — potentially late 2016

The oft-spied new-generation Renault Koleos will potentially arrive in Australia later in 2016 after its world premiere early-ish in the year.

We already know this new version grow significantly over the current model, enough to accommodate a seven-seat derivative and thereby carve out a significantly bigger piece of a lucrative market.

Furthermore, the 2016 Koleos will once again be made in South Korea at a Renault-Samsung plant, making the pricing equation for our market better than the European-made and smaller Kadjar.

The replacement for the current Koleos, which is getting long-in-the-tooth now but remains Renault Australia’s fourht most popular offering, will be built on the specific Renault/Nissan Alliance Common Family Module (CFM) architecture that also underpins the new X-Trail.

It will be a hugely important car for Renault, given medium SUVs are one of the market’s biggest segments. Its likely launch around the same time as the all-new Volkswagen Tiguan will make for an interesting comparison test.