The Renault Alaskan concept has been revealed, previewing the company’s planned production pick-up truck which is due to go on sale in 2017.
The Alaskan is due to be the company’s first global pick-up and will be built alongside equivalents from Nissan and Mercedes-Benz, the latter of which is due by 2020. The production Renault and the Mercedes will share some of their architecture with the Nissan NP300 Navara, although both companies will engineer and design their own final versions to keep their identities intact.
The one-tonne Alaskan comes with 21in wheels, full LED lighting, satin-effect paint and brushed and polished metal finishes on the exterior.
Despite its commercial vehicle nature, Renault is pitching the Alaskan at the private leisure-focused user. As well as what Renault describes as high-quality interior standards and space for five in the cabin, the Alaskan concept also comes with a camera located in the door mirror to film the passing landscape. It is offered with a selection of accessories such as a load bed liner and cover.
The Alaskan comes with the 163bhp 2.3-litre 163hp twin-turbo diesel that features in the Master van. Although there are no official performance figures quoted for the Alaskan, it is capable of a claimed combined economy figure of 40.4mpg in the Master.
The production version of the Alaskan will be revealed in summer 2016 before going on sale in Europe the following summer.
Speaking to Autocar at the Frankfurt motor show, Renault design boss Laurens van den Acker said: "As a design challenge Ioved it. You can imagine the reaction in the design studio every time we pulled the covers off it - a large French pick-up is unheard of.
"To design something with no history behind it, with nothing to lose and with every potential customer a conquest was a joy. I loved it. From my experience with Ford in the US I was the only one in the entire team who had any experience if doing a pick-up and that brought a great freedom to the project."
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