With a portfolio consisting of affordable vehicles, Renault India is pushing ahead by updating their popular offerings like Triber and Kiger with midlife refreshes. First we saw Triber getting refreshed and now it is the turn of Kiger, which is currently Renault’s flagship offering till Duster launches some time in 2026.
At iCAT facility in Gurgaon, Haryana, we experienced Renault Kiger facelift across a banked oval circuit, incline and decline ramps, quick ABS maneuver test and a handling track to understand this vehicle. After around half a day with this new vehicle, this is what we think about Renault Kiger facelift.
Renault Kiger Facelift First Drive Review
Rs 6.29 lakh (Ex-sh) is the starting price at which Renault has launched Kiger facelift. If you’re wondering, that is the exact same price Triber facelift also starts at. What makes Kiger the flagship (as of now) over Triber is that Kiger gets a Turbo Petrol engine which starts from Rs 10 lakh (Ex-sh). Trim levels for NA Petrol version include Authentic, Evolution, Techno and Emotion, while Turbo Petrol only gets Techno and Emotion.
Colour options include 7 monotone and 4 dual-tone shades in the form of Caspian Blue, Shadow Grey, Moonlight Silver, Fictitious, Stealth Black, Ice Cool White and the launch colour Oasis Yellow. With a dual-tone Black roof, Kiger facelift can be had in Oasis Yellow, Shadow Grey, Ice Cool White and an exclusive Radiant Red.
The primary change with Renault Kiger comes in the form of a redesigned fascia. Overall split headlight approach is carried forward in a refined way and actual lighting lighting elements (LED headlights and LED DRLs) look more or less the same. Everything around them are new, though. We get Renault’s new minimalist 2D logo with a sleeker upper grille and a larger lower grille.
Silver faux skid plate now extends upwards to form a bull-bar like design. For the first time, we now have LED fog lights. Design for 16-inch alloy wheels has been revised and behind them, we have Red painted disc brake calipers at the front, while rear continues with drum brakes. Roof rails and door handles are now blackened and the most interesting change for me was its sculpted bonnet.
What Else Is New?
On the inside, we now get a new Noir and Cool Grey interior theme that looks quite refreshing and airy as opposed to a darker theme it had before. As part of this new colour theme, we get an almost white Cool Grey shade on lower dashboard and upholstery, which is now leatherette and perforated. Perforation is required because Kiger facelift now offers ventilated seats feature, which works quite well, albeit not being exactly quiet about it.
Ventilated seat controls can be seen on dashboard among other controls and steering wheel now gets Yellow stitching and Renault’s new minimalist logo. Other than appearance, Renault Kiger remains the same as before other than the added features like auto headlights, rain-sensing wipers and the addition of 360-degree cameras which doesn’t offer a stitched 360-degree view.
Other than these, there is nothing new. Kiger facelift continues with auto climate control, rear AC vents, front and rear armrests, wireless charging pad, cruise control, an 8-inch infotainment screen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, keyless entry, push-button start, 7-inch TFT instrument cluster, dual gloveboxes, auto-dimming IRVM, 205 mm ground clearance and other elements. There are a host of accessories to choose from.
Specs & Space
Dimensionally, 2025 Renault Kiger facelift retains its size and other parameters. It measures 3,990 mm in length, 1,750 mm in width, 1,605 mm in height and comes with a 2,500 long wheelbase. Overall room inside Kiger facelift is identical to the pre-facelift model, which is not a bad thing.
Kiger always offered a decent amount of space on the inside for both front and rear occupants. Seats are supportive enough and offer a lot of comfort. Both front and rear occupants get centre armrests for added comfort and all seats gets 3-point seatbelts and adjustable headrests in the top-spec variant we experienced.
Even the 405L boot space is quite generous which can be expanded by folding the rear 60:40 split seats. Renault has carved out this boot space in a sub 4m SUV segment with a space saver tyre and a rather deep bay with a tall loading lip. Folding the 60:40 split rear bench seat (folds almost flat) liberates a cavernous amount of luggage carrying capacity, which is genuinely useful once rear parcel shelf is removed.
Performace
We drove the top-spec Kiger facelift Emotion Turbo Petrol CVT variant, which continues to be powered by the same 1.0L 3-cylinder Turbocharged Petrol engine with a peak power of 100 PS. There are certain vibrations from this 3-pot mill and it can be felt inside this cabin. While Renault has not tweaked the engine with Kiger facelift, the company promises reduced weight to extract more performance from this motor.
Renault even claims best-in-segment 0-100 km/h acceleration and torque-to-weight ratio along with 2nd best mileage (fuel efficiency) figures as well. In real world, one would have to drive both Kiger facelift and its predecessor back to back to realise the performance gains due to the reduced weight and added structural rigidity. Something which we couldn’t do.
Ride & Handling
Renault usually gets the suspension tuning bang on and Kiger facelift is no different. It retains the remarkable ride and handling characteristics of its predecessor that will appeal to majority of vehicle owners in India. It has to be noted that we only experienced Kiger facelift at iCAT facility in Gurgaon, Haryana, and not on public roads.
Kiger facelift tries to stick to predefined lines on a corner, but the steering is not exactly quick and there is a fair bit of understeer, making you muscle it into a corner and muscle it to bring it out of one. Softly sprung suspension is tuned more for comfort and revolts against driver’s efforts to carve a clean line on a corner with a ton of body roll. We even tried out an obstacle evading test at iCAT with speeds up to 60 km/h and it didn’t disappoint.
Braking is one area where we felt it could have been better. But it is par for this segment and is perfectly fine. That said, we pushed Kiger facelift at the handling track and had an absolute blast. If you snap out of the mindset of extracting a sporty drive experience, you will like Kiger facelift for what it is, a sub 4m high-riding SUV that is tuned to offer a cushy ride quality. In terms of safety, Kiger facelift hasn’t changed as much and continues with a similar elements including 6 airbags as standard.
Conclusion
We welcome this new design, improved cabin experience with ventilated seats, increased safety with auto headlights and wipers, and other upgrades. Then there are oversights in the form of missing front parking sensors and the 360-degree footage not being stitched together. There could have been request sensors on door handles and a more informative instrument cluster. Rear disc brakes would have made a stronger safety proposition.
There is nothing definitively wrong about Renault Kiger facelift, which was the case with pre-facelift model as well. Its just that we were expecting more from Kiger facelift to increase its current market share in the highly competitive sub 4m SUV segment. While this revised design elements and five notable features added with this facelift certainly helps Kiger’s cause, there could have been more X factor with this vehicle to truly set it apart.
As it stands, Renault Kiger facelift is a much-improved version of itself with a lot of new elements to attract SUV buyers. If you’re in the market to buy a sub 4m SUV without a sunroof (like you should), Renault Kiger facelift should probably be in your shortlist.
