Renault is done clinging to its European factories and is going all in. After launching in Latin America, the Boreal crossover will get a second assembly base — and not just anywhere, but in Turkey. The OYAK Renault plant in Bursa won’t be a mere local site, but a full-fledged export hub for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The Boreal debuted in 2025 as a global C-SUV built in Curitiba, Brazil. Now the model is breaking out of Latin America — and Turkey wasn’t picked at random. It’s Renault’s second most important market in the world and a perfect launchpad for shipments to neighboring regions.
And now for the juicy part — what sits under the hood. The headline act is the E-Tech hybrid powertrain rated at 160 hp, with WLTP consumption of 4.8 l/100 km and emissions of 108 g CO2/km. In urban driving, the Boreal can run on pure electric power up to 80% of the time. The lineup will be rounded out by a 1.3 TCe EDC petrol engine making 145 hp and, in the fourth quarter of 2026, an all-wheel-drive E-Tech 4x4 version with 150 hp.
Renault’s head of sales and operations Ivan Segal said: “The Boreal is now entering a new phase of its commercial rollout. Production in Bursa will allow us to serve the Turkish market, Renault’s second largest market in the world, and to open up exports to a cluster of markets across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”
For Renault, the Boreal isn’t just another budget filler — it’s a push into the more profitable C-SUV territory. Turkish assembly is supposed to keep the price down, speed up logistics and give the brand a fighting chance against Chinese crossovers in markets where buyers count every liter, every euro and every kilometer.
The Boreal is turning into something bigger than just another SUV for Renault. It’s a litmus test: can a traditional European brand really build a global model faster, cheaper and smarter than its rivals from the Middle Kingdom?
