New Renault Captur arrives in Australia for testing

The new Renault Captur city SUV is one step closer to Australia.

An engineering evaluation vehicle has just completed three months of validation testing of its advanced safety technology on Australian roads, ahead of local showroom arrivals due in the second half of this year.

The MY25 Captur will be the first Renault sold in Australia with “connected car” technology – including Google Maps with real-time traffic and over-the-air updates, and seamless access to Google Assistant voice control.

This connectivity will be available as part of the new Renault Captur’s ‘openR’ link multimedia and infotainment systems in addition to wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The engineering vehicle was brought to Australia a year ahead of local showroom arrivals to calibrate and validate Renault’s latest advanced driver assistance technology, including driver attention, lane-keeping, and speed-sign recognition systems.

A team of 11 engineers from Renault’s technical division in Europe came to Australia late last year to test the advanced driver assistance technology on a mix of city, suburban, and rural roads in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

In the process the engineering team clocked up 11,000km of testing in less than three months.

The MY25 Captur marks the return of Renault’s city SUV to the Australian market after a brief hiatus in the transition from the old to the new model.

Pricing and specifications will be announced closer to local showroom arrivals.

“Renault Captur has historically been one of the most popular models in our Australian lineup and dealers have been receiving constant enquiries from buyers asking when the new model is due here, after we sold out of the previous model late last year,” said Glen Sealey, the General Manager of Renault Australia.

“MY25 Renault Captur is just one of a number of new and updated Renault models around the corner for Renault Australia and we will have more to share on those soon.”