BMW is often credited with inventing the coupe SUV with the X6. On the other hand, some peeps argue that South Korean automaker SsangYong was first (in 2005) with the aesthetically-challenged Actyon.
In any case, this kind of body style is extremely popular nowadays. Everyone and their dog seems to be making coupe SUVs, including mass-market brands. Renault comes to mind, a French automaker that's currently pivoting to battery-electric vehicles.
A C-segment crossover based on the CMF-B platform of the Captur, the Arkana is available to configure in three well-equipped flavors. The so-called evolution with a lowercase 'e' starts at 31,000 euros in France, meaning 33,470 dollars at current exchange rates. The Rafale is expected to kick off at 44,000 euros or thereabouts, which is a bit steep for… excuse my French… an effing front-drive Renault.
Lower down the spectrum, Renault could very well apply the coupe-SUV recipe to the Dacia Duster. That's exactly what rendering artist X-Tomi Design did to the all-new Duster, which is quite a bit cheaper than the aforementioned Arkana (and the Captur).
The design study remains faithful to the real thing, whereas X-Tomi's execution of the rear end has a whiff of "could be" to it. The Renault-owned Romanian automaker is believed to be working on a coupe-styled crossover as part of the C-Neo project, but due to the lack of any official confirmation from Dacia, that's nothing more than wishful thinking.
Photo: Dacia
Looking at the bigger picture, a coupe SUV would go against the low-cost brand's low-cost ethos. The X6 is pricier than the X5, which is perfectly fine because Munich's favorite son is a premium automaker. A pricier take on the Duster? Truth is, not so much…
There is, however, a glimmer of hope in this regard. Laurens van den Acker, the Renault Group's design chief, made it clear that his vision for Dacia is for the Romanian marque to challenge Jeep in Europe. Why is that? According to van den Acker, because there's no serious rival for Jeep in this part of the world.
Dacia may be well positioned for prospective customers enamored with the outdoors, but taking the fight to Jeep would result in higher prices and lower sales across the board. Considering that Dacia's customers decided on Dacia due to its reasonably priced vehicles, van den Acker's vision may be wide off the mark.
Now twinned with the Arkana and Captur on the Renault-Nissan Alliance's CMF-B platform, the Duster sold 197,100 units in Europe in 2022. In other words, it sold marginally worse than James May's favorite car. Jokes aside, the Sandero truly is popular in the EU and the UK, having sold a grand total of 229,500 examples in 2022. Coincidentally, the Sandero is a CMF-B affair as well. But as opposed to the Duster, you can't get a four-pot mill anymore.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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