Renault Duster Pickup Is Named Niagara – First Teaser Out

Ever since the Renault Duster was first launched a decade ago, the company explored a pickup truck version of this popular SUV for more practicality. Called Duster Oroch, this pickup truck was offered in select South American nations like Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Chile. Now that we have a new version of Duster, it is getting a new pickup version too.

Renault previewed the new Duster pickup truck version with Niagara concept in 2023 and the production version will be called Niagara. Renault Niagara has been spied testing before and is now officially teased ahead of a formal launch. Let’s take a closer look.

Renault Duster Pickup Truck

On September 10th, Renault will debut a new pickup truck based on the current generation of Duster. Called Renault Niagara, it is the production-spec version of Renault Niagara Concept and will be built in Argentina for South American continent. In design, it is expected to share some elements with Boreal SUV, which is a three-row seating version of Duster.

Unlike traditional pickup trucks positioned on a ladder-frame chassis, Renault Niagara is a new breed of pickup trucks positioned on a monocoque SUV. Similar monocoque pickup trucks include Hyundai Santa Cruz, Ford Maverick, Chevy Montana, RAM Rampage, Honda Ridgeline and others. Even the load bed is not physically separated from passenger cabin on these.

Only the rear has been teased where we can see a traditional drop-down pickup style tailgate with a Renault badge and NIAGARA embossing in bold. Renault logo gets a Black styling element. The load bed is likely to carry wheel well intrusions and looked like it even had a proper bed liner to protect the metallic parts from scuffs and scratches.

What to expect?

Dimensionally, Renault Boreal (Duster 7-seater) measures 4,556 mm in length, 1,841 mm in width, 1,650 mm in height and has a 2,702 mm long wheelbase. Ground clearance is 213 mm and boot space is up to 586L in 5-seater configuration. One can speculate that Renault Niagara pickup truck will be slightly longer and has a longer wheelbase and a larger luggage area than Boreal.

The same equipment as Boreal are likely to be offered with Renault Niagara SUV. These include up to 19-inch alloy wheels, Level-2 ADAS, hands-free parking, 360-degree camera, powered and massaging front seats, panoramic sunroof, 10.1-inch infotainment screen, 10.25-inch instrument cluster, wireless charging pad and more.

Like Duster, Renault Niagara is expected to come equipped with a 1.3L Turbo Petrol engine with up to 163 bhp and a 1.8L Strong Hybrid setup with up to 160 bhp. Sophisticated AWD system is also expected with Renault Niagara. While Renault India has not confirmed a pickup truck based on Duster for our market, we are hopeful, considering the boom in lifestyle vehicle segment.