Renault Korea's Filante targets ownership costs with longer tire life, lower repair bills

Renault Korea is working to lower not just the sticker price of its flagship crossover, the Filante, but also the ongoing costs of owning one. The strategy combines the hybrid powertrain's inherent fuel efficiency with longer tire replacement intervals and reduced burdens on consumables and accident repair bills — making the total cost of ownership a selling point in its own right.

The push for longer tire life starts with rolling resistance. Lee Jae-hyeon, a senior researcher at Kumho Tire, met with reporters at the company's Central Research Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday. "The rolling-resistance target Renault Korea requested is among the most demanding of any domestic client we work with," he said. "Fuel costs and efficiency are among the things drivers are most sensitive to, so that was where we focused our development."

Kumho Tire currently supplies 20-inch original-equipment tires for both the Filante and the Grand Koleos. The company has collaborated with Renault Korea for more than 20 years, dating back to the Samsung Motors era, and focused the development of both vehicles' tires on improving not only fuel efficiency, ride comfort and cabin quietness but also wear performance.

Kumho Tire said the rolling resistance of the tires fitted to the Filante and Grand Koleos is about 16 percent better than comparable commercially available products of the same size. Lower rolling resistance reduces the energy lost as a tire rolls, which in turn helps improve the vehicle's fuel efficiency.

The standout improvement is wear performance. Hybrids and electric vehicles carry heavier battery packs, which can accelerate tire wear. Kumho Tire devoted considerable effort to enhancing the wear performance of the EMC used in the Filante's tires.

"Assuming a typical driver covers about 20,000 kilometers a year, we expect the new tires to last roughly 20,000 kilometers longer than the previous product," a Kumho Tire official said. "For the consumer, that effectively means about one extra year of tire use." The estimate assumes normal maintenance, including regular tire rotation.

Longevity did not come at the expense of ride comfort. In fact, one of the qualities Renault Korea emphasized most strongly to Kumho Tire during development was a smooth, supple ride.

"When I first heard that 20-inch tires would be used, I assumed it was a handling-focused car," Lee said. "But Renault Korea kept emphasizing that it had to ride as comfortably as a sedan, even though it's an SUV." He added: "I remember tuning it right to the end to achieve a smooth feel even over the tiniest bumps."

Cabin quietness is also noteworthy. Acoustic foam inside the 20-inch tires reduces noise in specific resonance frequency ranges by about 4 decibels compared with rival products, and tread-pattern noise has been cut by more than 1 decibel as well.

Development speed has also improved. Kumho Tire uses digital twin technology and AI to predict tire performance before any physical prototype is built, achieving 90 to 95 percent predictive accuracy through virtual development alone. As a result, the overall development timeline has been cut by about 30 percent. Measured from the start of physical tire production, the process that took 18 months for the QM6 was completed in 12 months for the Filante and Grand Koleos.

Alongside longer tire replacement intervals, Renault Korea is also working to reduce routine maintenance costs.

A single engine oil set change for the Filante — parts plus labor at a company-owned service center — costs 131,000 won ($96), compared with 137,000 won for a rival model in the same class, a difference of 6,000 won. The cabin air filter is priced at 57,000 won for the Filante versus 58,000 won for the competing model.

Renault Korea has been expanding the use of locally sourced parts, particularly for newer models such as the Grand Koleos and Filante. The domestic parts localization rate for both vehicles currently stands at around 60 percent.

"In the past, imported parts drove up unit costs — that was simply the reality," said Lee Jeong-gwi, head of Renault Korea's Changwon Central Service Center. "More recently, localization has brought parts prices down considerably."

The Grand Koleos illustrates the approach clearly: front and rear bumper replacement costs are about 25 to 30 percent lower than those for the company's previous SUV, the QM6. Not every repair category has fallen by the same margin, but the figures show that part pricing and future repair costs are factored in from the earliest stages of vehicle development.

On-the-ground assessments of initial quality were also positive. Lee, who has worked at Renault Korea for more than 20 years, said: "In terms of quality, the Grand Koleos and Filante are the best of any cars we've had before. There are no quality issues that have become a problem so far."

The Changwon Central Service Center is an official service facility built on the infrastructure of Renault Korea's former company-owned Changwon service center. It handles routine maintenance, warranty repairs, accident and insurance repairs, body and paint work, and statutory inspections all under one roof, with a daily capacity of 40 to 50 vehicles.

Renault Korea operates a nationwide network of 365 official service centers. Starting this month, buyers of 2027-model Filante and Grand Koleos vehicles are eligible for an extended warranty program covering body and general parts for up to seven years or 140,000 kilometers, and major engine and drivetrain components for the same period. Hybrid-specific parts carry a warranty of eight years or 160,000 kilometers, while the high-voltage battery is covered for 10 years or 200,000 kilometers.

The claims made at the research institute and service center held up on the road. A test drive covered roughly 330 kilometers from Yongin to Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, in the Filante. On a mixed route of highway and urban driving, the dashboard showed an average fuel economy of around 16 kilometers per liter — above the official combined rating of 15.1 kilometers per liter.

Under favorable conditions, figures of around 20 kilometers per liter are achievable. The Filante runs a hybrid E-Tech powertrain with a combined system output of 250 horsepower — not a setup tuned purely for efficiency — yet the fuel gauge dropped more slowly on the long-distance run than expected.

Despite the 20-inch wheels, the car filtered out minor road imperfections with relative ease, and there was little harshness over extended highway stretches. The result of frequency-selective dampers fitted across all trim levels, active noise cancellation and the low-noise original-equipment tires working in concert.

"A vehicle's value for money cannot be judged by purchase price alone," a Renault Korea official said. "The Filante was designed with a focus on reducing not only fuel costs but also the real expenses customers bear while owning the car — tire lifespan, consumables and repair bills."