Renault has unveiled the Morphoz, a shapeshifting concept designed to act as both a city car and a long-range cruiser – as well as providing a foretaste of its forthcoming Kadjar-sized electric crossover.
The Morphoz is intended as an urban family car for 2027, with its modular design allowing one vehicle to serve multiple functions. But more significantly, underneath that conceptual tech, the car is built on the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance’s new CMF-EV platform, which will be used for Renault’s first electric crossover, due later this year.
Gilles Normand, Renault’s senior vice-president of electric vehicles, said elements of the Morphoz’s design will be used in the forthcoming production crossover and further models will be built on the platform.
Normand told Autocar: “Morphoz is a concept, but what has been expressed by the styling department in some areas is a reinterpretation of what they intend for future production models.
“Let’s say you can’t take it for face value, but it’s definitely the direction where we’re going. Some of the features, such as the configuration and roominess, are going to be of major value for cars based on this platform.”
The adaptable CMF-EV skateboard chassis pushes the wheels to the corners, with Renault saying the ‘streamlined’ design of the underfloor batteries enables it to sit lower to the ground. It is designed to adopt differing motor and battery set-ups and the packaging benefit of the smaller motors enables greater interior space.
Normand said the platform is designed for cars in the “B+ and C+” segments, which will sit above the Zoe and new (but not-for-UK) Twingo ZE in Renault’s EV line-up.
The Morphoz is the latest Renault concept in recent years to preview future technology, but whereas previous models have looked further ahead to fully autonomous cars, this concept is intended as a near-future vision.
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Peter Cavellini
Avantime again.
Yes, and like that car this is a bit ahead of its time.
abkq
The idea of variable length
Also, like most concept cars, this one lacks a B-pillar, which is great except that as far as I know none translates into production. So why keep on pretending that structural integrity can be achieved without a B-pillar?
michael knight
B-pillar
Ford B-Max
xxxx
abkq wrote:
BMW i3
abkq
Both of you are absolutely
I hope more cars will do away with the increasingly thick and wide B-pillar.
si73
abkq wrote:
It looks like the stretch version has the black space behind the front wheels which is missing on some of the other pics which must be the shorter version. Not a massive difference really, and it looks more range rover than Renault
abkq
On second thought, a 'normal'
In a city its often width, not length, thats the crucial dimension.
bol
Getting your miles and kilometres mixed up again?
If this lump were capable of 249 miles of range from a 40kwh battery the headline would be "Renault doubles the efficiency of its EV drivetrain". I know it's a concept, but 150 miles would be a good achievement.
Hughbl
Looks to me
like a fair bit of Range Rover design went into this concept.
Turinbrakes
Hughbl wrote:
Absolutely, as well as a lot of Jaguar design as well
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