The Geneva Motor Show should have served as a stage on which many car manufacturers would present their newcomers. The most important car fair in Europe will not take place this year, so this brand-new Morphoz Concept is currently making its debut purely on the digital stages. However, that does not make the study model itself any less interesting.
Thanks to an attentive Techzle reader, we were able to show you a photo of Renault’s new concept car in January, a car about which unfortunately nothing was known at that time. Renault has now pulled the digital canvas of its new show car: the Morphoz.
The Morphoz Concept is a fully electric crossover, but not just one. The newcomer not only has a strikingly designed carriage, but actually has two characters. You have to take the latter quite literally. The Morphoz Concept has a City and a Travel mode that influence the dimensions of the concept car. In City mode, the Morphoz has a total length of 4.4 meters and a wheelbase of 2.73 meters. If you put the concept car in the Travel mode, you will see a special scene. The muzzle of the Morphoz Concept, together with the front part of the platform, moves 20 centimeters forward, which increases the wheelbase to 2.93 meters. Because the rear of the car also extends further back in this Travel mode, the luggage space increases and the total car length is 4.80 meters. The carriage of the Morphoz looks slightly different from the front and from the rear in Travel mode and has to cut through the air just as efficiently in its travel position.
Electric
Renault believes that it is more efficient not to drive around at all times with an electric SUV with a 90-100 kWh battery pack if you do not need this capacity during most of your journeys. In City mode, the Morphoz also has a 40 kWh battery pack, good for a WLTP range of around 400 kilometers. Still a long drive ahead? Then the mentioned Travel mode offers a solution. Because the front including the platform slide forward in that position, there will be room in the floor of the car for an additional ‘Travel Extender’ battery with a capacity of 50 kWh. This brings the total capacity to 90 kWh and with that a range of 700 kilometers should be achievable. If you no longer need the Travel Extender, you can return the extra battery at the same exchange station where the extra battery came from. According to Renault, the batteries present there can be used again, for example, to charge electric bicycles or to provide electricity to the surrounding infrastructure. The batteries can be charged through induction on paper. The electric powertrain itself delivers 136 hp in City mode and 218 hp in Travel mode.
Design
Also the interior, which you thanks to suicide doors and a missing B-pillar has easy access, has a special design. Because the car on paper is able to move autonomously (level 3) through the traffic, the Morphoz has a folding steering wheel and instrumentation. In that futuristic-looking steering wheel, a 10.2-inch screen is included on which the most important driving and safety information is displayed. The 80-centimeter wide L-shaped OLED display placed behind the steering wheel can be folded away and conjured up in both autonomous and ‘manual’ mode. Other striking things: the Morphoz has a ‘Share’ stand to talk to the rear passengers. The passenger seat tilts backwards and the backrest thus suddenly acts as a seat. And striking gimmick that of course will not reach the production stage. The seats in the rear can be moved, but that of course has to do with the City and Travel modes in which the Morphoz can be driven.
The Ivory Gold-painted Morphoz is finished with Electric Yellow-colored details. In the interior there is another set of glossy black accents. The light signature of the concept car is interesting, because here too we are going to see more of it on future production models. Regular side mirrors are missing, instead, Renault’s show car has cameras mounted on sticks that take over the function of those side mirrors. According to Renault, the 22-inch wheels are designed to promote the aerodynamics of the car.
Gadgets and technology
No modern concept car without technological gadgets such as artificial intelligence, so the Morphoz is also equipped with a smart digital assistant who works not only in but also outside the car. For example, if you walk to the car and wave, the doors open automatically. The car also recognizes who is approaching and adjusts the driver’s seat and the preset interior lighting accordingly. The heart of artificial intelligence is housed in the middle tunnel. If you place your smartphone in the designated area, you give the AI ​​access to information and media on the device.
Utility: new electrical platform
According to Bruno Vanel, Program Director of the Groupe Renault department that deals with electric cars, the Morphoz slide-out fungus serves a second and much more important purpose. This is because the Morphoz Concept illustrates that there is a completely new modular platform for future EVs that has been developed by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. Indeed, modular and that naturally means that the alliance can use cars of different sizes. The platform is characterized by its relatively long wheelbase, wheels placed far at the corners and a flat floor. Renault is also able to place a large number of components, including the hardware of the air conditioning system, in the nose of the newcomers. This naturally benefits the interior space. The platform is also suitable for installing electric motors at both the front and rear of the car, which means that four-wheel drive EVs can also use it.
Concept cycle
The Morphoz Concept is of course part of the Life Cycle concept strategy that main designer Laurens van den Acker uses as a guideline when drawing his study model. This new French show car embodies the ‘Family’ heading and is therefore a playful preview of a family car. As the car is now presented, it will of course not go into production. Renault describes the Morphoz as a car that “[…] represents Renault’s vision of personal, shared and electric mobility for the years after 2025. “However, Techzle can confirm that certain design elements of this concept car will be used for future models and that within a few years a new EV comes with the appearance of this Morphoz.