New 2021 Renault Arkana: prices and specs confirmed

The new Renault Arkana is on sale in the UK now. Prices start from £25,300, which means the French brand’s new offering undercuts the likes of the Mercedes GLC Coupe and BMW X4 by around £20,000. First deliveries are expected to arrive in September.

Renault has separated the Arkana range into three trim-levels, called Iconic, S Edition and R.S. Line. The base model features 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlamps, rear privacy glass, all-round parking sensors and a pair of electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors. There’s a decent amount of standard safety equipment, too, including active emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, traffic sign recognition, a speed limiter and cruise control.

Inside, buyers get black and grey cloth upholstery, automatic air conditioning, a rear-view camera and electric windows. There’s also a 4.2-inch digital display for the gauge cluster and a seven-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The Arkana S Edition is priced from £27,600. Upgrades over the base-model include 18-inch alloy wheels, automatic high-beam and a slightly darker tint for the rear windows. The cruise control is now adaptive and there’s a new blind-spot warning system.

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There’s more equipment for the cabin, too, with buyers getting synthetic leather upholstery, a leather steering wheel, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror and Renault’s “Multi-Sense” system, which adds three driving modes and eight ambient lighting colours. Technology gets a boost, too, with a seven-inch digital gauge cluster and a larger 9.3-inch infotainment system, which has a Google search function and live traffic updates.

At the top of the line-up, there’s the sporty Arkana R.S. Line. It adds a deeper front splitter, red coachlines, black alloy wheels and a more aggressive rear bumper that houses a pair of chrome exhaust outlets, along with some unique 18-inch alloys. Prices start from £29,900.

Inside, the R.S. Line features dedicated leather and suede upholstery with red stitching, red-striped seat belts, a perforated leather steering wheel, carbon-effect trim for the dashboard, aluminium pedals and a frameless rear-view mirror.

As you might imagine. there are a few optional extras to choose from, depending on the specification. S Edition cars can be had with leather seats (£1,000), hands-free parking (£350) and a winter pack (£250), which adds heating elements to the front seats and steering wheel. 

Both the S Edition and R.S. Line models can also be specced with a gloss black roof (£300) and an opening sunroof (£1,000). The R.S. Line variant is also exclusively available with an adaptive cruise control system that has stop and go and lane centreing for an extra £350.

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Buyers have a choice of just two petrol engines. The entry level model features the same turbocharged 1.3-litre four-cylinder mild-hybrid petrol engine as the latest Clio, which has an output of 138bhp and 260Nm of torque. It sends drive to the front wheels via a dual-clutch automatic gearbox and returns a claimed 48.7mpg on the WLTP.

Above that, there’s a full hybrid powertrain priced from £26,300. The system comprises a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, two electric motors and a 1.2kWh battery pack, for a combined output of 143bhp. The extra electrical assistance also improves the SUV’s fuel economy up to a claimed 57.6mpg.

New 2021 Renault Arkana: design and platform

The Renault Arkana is built on the same CMF-B platform as the current Clio and Captur – and it shares elements of both of those cars’ designs. The front end features the same C-shaped daytime running lights and radiator grille as the Clio, while the SUV’s glasshouse and ride height bear resemblance to the Captur.

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Renault’s biggest styling development for the Arkana is its coupe-like rear end which is unlike anything else currently in its segment, aside from the Citroen C4. As such, the Arkana will sit in relative isolation. The only other mainstream manufacturers with coupe-SUVs in their line-ups are Skoda and Kia, both of which offer pure-electric only models with a similar bodystyle.

The Arkana’s larger rear end has given it a boot capacity of 513 litres, which is 122 litres more than the Clio. Renault has also added a couple of practicality tweaks, such as a flat-folding rear bench seat, a 360-degree parking camera and large front door pockets which can accommodate 1.5-litre water bottles.

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