PARIS, March 3 — Groupe Renault has unveiled Morphoz, its new partially self-driving electric concept. The vehicle was destined to make its world premiere on Thursday at the Geneva Motor Show, which has now been cancelled by Swiss authorities in response to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

The Morphoz is an all electric with level-three self-driving — which means it can manage without close supervision in certain situations like motorway driving — that is also fully modular.

This last point is key to the innovation offered by the Morphoz, which is supposed to adapt to its environment, by for example morphing from a small urban SUV configuration to a family-size SUV one in a few seconds.

This transformation is achieved with sliding bodywork that can add around 40 cm in length to the vehicle. At the same time, it can have its range extended by expanding to accommodate a larger battery.

To this end, it takes advantage of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance's future CMF-EV modular electric platform, which is designed to offer several different power, capacity and range configurations, as well as interior space and boot capacity options, to provide a substantiated representation of Renault"s futuristic vision for electric mobility in the medium term.

The surprising concept will pave the way for a brand new family of electric vehicles that the French automaker plans to launch starting in 2021. — AFP-Relaxnews