The Renault Bridger concept previews a chunky little crossover that’ll be built in India

As you may have noticed if you’ve looked at today’s TopGear.com home page, Renault is currently outlining its excruciatingly-titled ‘futuREady’ plan that’ll apparently drive its growth between now and 2030.

But that growth won’t just be in Europe. In fact, Renault wants to be selling more than two million vehicles per year by 2030, and it wants half of those sales to take place outside of its home continent. So, alongside the launch of 12 new cars in Europe in the next few years (plus any Alpines and Dacias), we’ll also see 14 new Renault-branded models in other international markets. Busy times.

This ‘brand offensive’ will be led in part by the brilliantly boxy thing you see up above. That’s the Renault Bridger Concept – a teeny little B-segment SUV that’ll launch in production form before the end of 2027, before being built in India for both the local market and “other international markets”.

“Renault now relies on robust hubs in Morocco, Türkiye, Latin America, South Korea and India, where we already have strong industrial and commercial presence,” said Renault brand boss and chief growth officer for the Renault Group, Fabrice Cambolive.

“With futuREady, our ambition is clear: to strengthen our positions in our key markets with products that are fully adapted to each region, electrified and true to the Renault's DNA. Our five hubs are growth drivers. Their role is to develop, produce and export competitive vehicles, working with our technical bases shared around three global platforms. This unique combination of local agility and global coherence is the key to our acceleration outside Europe.”

Ah yes, there’s the obligatory mention of electrification. You may have spotted the Bridger’s lack of exhaust – the production car will be based on the RGMP small platform and it’ll be available in electric, hybrid and combustion form ‘depending on the market’. Renault wants 50 per cent of its sales outside of Europe to be electrified in some way by 2030.

The Bridger certainly looks the part, doesn’t it? We’re big fans of the chunky, upright design and those squared-off wheelarches. There’s also a full-size 18in spare wheel on the back and 200mm of ground clearance, but the whole car is less than four metres long. Still 400 litres of boot space though. Renault describes this thing as “an urban adventurer”, which rather makes it sound like someone who doesn’t care much for trespassing laws.

Anyway, let’s just hope this look makes it through to production. That ‘Beige Dune Satin’ paint can come to the party too.

Last year Renault sold 620,000 vehicles outside Europe. Reckon the world will buy 400,000 Bridgers per year to help it hit its punchy target?