Review: Renault Mégane E-Tech

Renault is tipping its eggs into the basket marked electric. It is replacing the faithful petrol and diesel models with pure electric and with full hybrids. Last year it was number three in BEV sales in Europe and second in petrol/electric hybrids. It sold 1.46 million cars, of which 43 per cent were outside Europe. UK sales improved to 32,285 as it re-positioned its range.

Helping its growth in the family sector were the Arkana hybrid, reviewed here last year, and the electric Mégane E-Tech, which we test today.

The Mégane dates from the mid 1990s, sold at various times over the decades as a hatchback, saloon, estate car and cabriolet and a potent Renault Sport RS coupe. The influential Scénic MPV was on the same platform.

Mégane was voted 2003 European Car of the Year. In 2009 the saloon became the basis for the Fluence, its first electric car. The battery pack was rented, which made the Fluence much cheaper than the Nissan LEAF. It could be swapped for a charged battery at depots but that company went bust. The Fluence’s accessible battery obstructed the boot. It weighed 280kg and the car was poorly balanced. It flopped out of the market, unloved. Renault was to make amends with the lovely Zoe electric hatchback and now this electric Mégane.

Let’s get the cost out of the way. The cheapest is £35,995 or from £459 a month on finance, or £599 for all costs including insurance. In 2021, the old Mégane plug-in hybrid started at £30,000. This car is still being made in Spain and sold in mainland Europe but not in the UK. Given the rise in prices for just about everything, paying another £6,000 for a thoroughly modern and smart electric car with acceleration to match the RS Coupe, which had cost about the same, may seem a bargain.

The Mégane E-Tech is built on the platform used for the electric Nissan Ariya. The two companies, and Mitsubishi, are in a collaborative alliance leading up to 2030 and 35 new BEV models, sharing five common electric platforms. They will include a Renault Scénic, here soon, and a French-built Nissan Micra and the sporty Alpine E-ternité.

Renault says battery costs are expected to fall 65pc by 2028 and eventually using solid state batteries, prices will match combustion-engined vehicles, which will remain on sale in most of the world. We shall see.

The electric Mégane is a promising start. It is in most other respects a conventional front-wheel-drive, five-seater hatchback with some mild SUV styling accents. The interior is comfortable and fitted out with a baker’s dozen of places for storage. These include a deep, lidded box between the seats, roomy door pockets and various trays. There is one for phone-charging in the dashboard plus two usb c-ports. Accessories can be powered through a 12v socket and there are two c-ports serving rear passengers.

Winter is not kind to electric cars. The cold depletes the batteries and thus the range and, for example, I lost 20 miles overnight when the car was parked.

The official range is 280 miles on a full charge. You would only approach that in perfect conditions. On test, with the battery showing 87 per cent the estimated range was 191 miles. Range can go up, in stop-start driving when the battery recharges, or down on a non-stop drive with not much braking or slowing. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Parkers Electric Cars tell us the price of charging an electric car using a public rapid charger has risen by 50% since May 2022, making the cost of fuelling an EV this way more expensive than using petrol or diesel.

Using a 75kw Osprey public charger, paying by debit card. I paid £14.25 for an extra 64 miles. That’s the equivalent of getting 30 miles a gallon from a petrol car at current fuel prices. At one stage the energy panel said I was getting three miles per kwh. Osprey charges 79p/kwh. If I could charge at home, I would pay 19.2p per kwh, which is four times cheaper. I met a happy LEAF owner paying just 12p/kwh.

It has the contemporary looks of an electric car. It drives nicely with the instant response of any electric machine. It is comfortable and quiet. Most glitches were because of my unfamiliarity. I’d like a lanyard hole on the flat key pad which I found easy to misplace. I do like the colour-coded warning on stopping distances. Green is OK, amber is beware and red means you have less than a second to stop. I like the pop-out front door handles. I like the column-shift for the gears, the fabric dashboard capping matching the seats, the Renault diamond logo puddle lights, the smooth and instant response, the relaxing drive.

Verdict: If you are tuned in and on board with the charging practicalities of electric motoring, the range and costs of the car, then the Mégane is a worthy contender. Ideally you’d have your own 7kw charger.

Renault Mégane E-Tech

Price: from £235,995 in three levels. Equilibre £36,995. Techno tested £39,495. Launch Edition £40,995.

Engine: 60 kWh battery

Power: 217bhp

Torque: 221lb/ft

Transmission: Automatic

Top speed: 99mph

0-62mph: 7.5 seconds

Range: Officially, 280 miles.

CO 2 emissions: 0g/km

Road tax £0 year one. BIK tax two per cent.

Towing: Up to 900kg.

Length 165in (4.2m).