Having already received a mid-life facelift in 2009, four years after its introduction at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show, the third generation of the Renault Clio is paving the way for the presentation of an all-new model that is expected to break cover at the next Paris Motor Show in September of 2012.

Our spies caught a test mule of the fourth-generation Clio combining the front end and chassis bits of the new model with the rest of the body panels sources from the current version.

The covered up front end doesn’t do much to hide the newly designed snout with the “V” shaped slim grille encompassing a larger Renault logo, and which we first saw through a variety of concepts before making it into production on the revised Twingo.

It is anticipated that the new Clio will borrow many styling cues from the ZOE pure-electric supermini concept that was displayed at last year’s Paris Motor Show.

Under the hood, Renault will offer Clio buyers in Europe a variety of petrol and diesel engines with improved fuel efficiency and lower emissions.

The French firm also has plans for the development of a hot RenaultSport version that will be added to the range down the line.

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