The next Renault Mégane RS will have five doors. Goodbye to the coupé?

Renault joins the trend of powerful hatchbacks with five-door bodywork. Traditionally, this privilege was reserved for three- or two-door variants, given their more sporty style and image, but the lack of practicality of a coupé body put an already very specific market niche at risk, which is why manufacturers are currently inclined to opt for five-door versions to fit their powerful engines.

The next Renault Mégane RS will have five doors. Does this mean the elimination of the Mégane Coupé? In the top-of-the-range version signed by Renault Sport, yes, but the options with more ‘accessible’ engines will remain available in both three- and five-door bodies, as well as in the family estate configuration. This has been confirmed by Regis Fricotte, head of Renault Sport, who has also assured that the current Mégane RS will remain in production until the end of 2016, when the fourth generation will take over.

While the current Renault Mégane RS is a coupé, its successor will take the form of a five-door hatchback, and Renault justifies this change by the importance of the car remaining practical, a logic already used for the Clio RS. Based on this, Fricotte stated that they can make the five-door body look very sporty without needing to be a coupé model.

In terms of performance, the RS variant of the Renault Mégane 2016 will be more powerful than the current one, meaning its output will sit at the 300 CV threshold, whereas the current car produced 275 CV after several updates and different versions. The decision to increase power was made in order to keep up with the competition, so the new model could still offer a six-speed manual gearbox.

This is perhaps where the key to the success of the fourth-generation Mégane RS lies. Its smaller sibling, the Clio RS, is offered only with an automatic EDC dual-clutch transmission controlled by paddles, which has not won over enthusiasts, although it can make the car much faster. However, a manual transmission is always an attraction for purists. Therefore, Fricotte did not rule out offering both gearboxes on the new RS. What he did confirm is that its configuration would remain front-wheel drive (FWD).

Source | Motoring

Technical specifications of this car

HatchbackRenault Megane3 versions · from 39,650 €