Renault Kangoo morphs into open-deck Express bakkie

With the second generation Duster Oroch earmarked for unveiling next year in addition to coming to South Africa, Renault, despite dropping the Nissan Navara-based Alaskan in Europe, has not given up on the bakkie market with its latest addition squarely marketed as a workhorse.

Only destined for some European markets, the new Express Pick-up is the work of Italian firm Focaccia Automotive Group and based on the new Kangoo with both replacing the van and pick-up versions of the Dacia Dokker on the Old Continent.

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A similar outsourcing exercise to the Romanian market only Dacia Duster Pick-up made by Romturingia, the Express retains the front-end look of the Kangoo but with the rear completely  redesigned from the B-pillar back.

Rear is completely different from the Kangoo. Image: l’argus.fr

Sporting a load bed of 1.78-metres and a volume of 3.7 m³, the Express has a claimed payload of 675 kg with up to 48-litres of combined storage available inside the cab. While likely to be similar to basic versions of the Kangoo, no images of the interior were revealed.

Up front, the Express comes powered by a choice of two engines shared with the Kangoo; the 74 kW 1.3-litre turbo-petrol and the 1.5 Blue dCi in two states of tune; 55 kW and 70 kW. Being a commercial vehicle, the Express foregoes an automatic gearbox with the sole option being a six-speed manual across all models.

For now, no pricing details are known but don’t expect the Express to land in South African any time soon.

Additional information from diariomotor.com