Renault recently face-lifted the Clio one of our favourite small cars & winner of our Small Car of the Year Award in 2022. We spent a week in the company car favourite E-Tech & here’s how we got on.
What’s new ?
On the outside the Clio now looks sharper. Factor in a new front grille with redesigned Renault logo, new tail lights, aerodynamic indents on the rear bumper & following the design cues of the Megane & Austral, vertical daytime running lights & an F1 blade in the front bumper.
Engines
We were testing the E-Tech which is the 145hp auto & the best company car option, as it offers 205Nm’s, with 96-97g/km of C02 emissions & a combined mpg of 65/7-67.3. The other option is a TCe 90hp manual, with 160Nm, CO2’s of 118-120g/km & a combined economy of 53.3-54.3mpg.
E-Tech Model range
Entry level Evolution costs from £21,295. It’s well equipped & features 16″ alloys, a 7″ digital instrument panel, a 7″ touchscreen, LED headlights, rear parking sensors, wireless smartphone connectivity, Apple Car Play & Android Auto, plus active safety such as lane keep assist & lane departure warning.
Mid-range Techno cost £22,695 & adds front & rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, 17″ alloysn& a wireless charging pad
Range topping Esprit Alpine E-Tech costs from £24,095 & comes with adaptive cruise control, a 9.3″ easylink touchscreen, a 10″ digital drivers display, aluminium pedals, heated front seats & steering wheel, auto low-high beam headlights, an electric parking brake, French tricolour touches, a synthetic leather steering wheel & Esprit Alpine enveloping fabric seats.
Interior
The interior is nicely finished, with comfortable seats & an improved black & chrome ergonomic dashboard. The 9.3″ touchscreen infotainment display is designed to lean towards the driver & with it’s portrait shape, it’s also easier to reach, to touch & to use than most of the competition.
New additions are an electric hand brake & wireless charging pad. Sensibly Renault has kept the chunky climate dials & the physical piano key switches for the majority of functions so you can easily turn of lane keeping for example, without spending an hour finding it hidden within a touchscreen menu. The interior utilises bio-sourced & recycled material & is completely leather free.
Infotainment
The updates don’t include the latest Google powered system that you’ll find on the Megane & Austral. However, with wireless Car Play or Android Auto you can bypass Renaults own set-up & select your own SatNav or traffic aided Apps such as Waze. There’s nothing wrong with the Clios system per se, but it can be a bit slow to respond to a touch command. Better is the 10″ digital drivers display which you can customise with different designs & how the driving info is displayed. All in all it’s still one of the best systems hat you’ll find in a small car.
Interior space & storage
Getting comfortable is easy & both front passengers have good head & leg room. You get a 12v socket & Aux in & twin USB C inputs between the front seats. The Esprit Alpine front bucket seats are quite narrow though. Rear head room is okay but rear legroom isn’t great, especially if you’re sitting behind a tall driver.
For storage, there’s an average sized glove box, two largish front door pockets, storage under the adjustable centre armrest, a spot for your key card & a couple of drinks holders. With 301 litres on offer the boot is a decent size. Fold down the rear seats & this increases to a very useful 1,006 litres, but there is a big boot lip to negotiate.
E-Tech engine
The E-Tech is powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol, supported by an electric motor, a 1.2kWh battery & a clutch less gearbox. The electric motor starts the car & gets you moving from standstill, so that you always pull away under electric power. There’s a starter generator which is there to start the petrol engine & also smoothes out the clutch less gear changes. If you drive slowly, you can in theory reach 40mph in pure-electric mode, but in our experience, the petrol engine fires up at about 20mph.
You can prevent the engine kicking in by selecting the EV button on the dash, but as with other self charging hybrids, this will only last for a few miles at most before the battery is depleted. You can select a regenerative ‘B’ mode in the gear changes & this will add a few extra EV miles to the range.vOn the motorway simply select your driving mode, Eco being the obvious range saver, then cruise control & away you go.
Driving & performance
The clutch-less gearbox does what it’s supposed to do & in the Renault, is significantly quieter then the similar Toyota version which is good news. Top speed is 112mph with a 0-62mph time of 9.3 seconds.
As a whole, the best way to enjoy the Clio E-Tech is just to sit back & let it do it’s own thing. We travelled 300 miles in our test week averaging an impressive 55.1 mpg ( Renault claim 67.3mpg ). Drive in D mode & this Clio is great fun. Select the B regenerative braking & the fun is stifled slightly, as the car uses the brakes to re charge your electric range whilst on the move.
The ride is a little firm but overall is comfortable enough & the Clio despite not being that quick, still retains a sense of fun. It also offers a high-quality supermini package for the price, feeling far more like a big car to drive especially on the motorway. The steering is sharp & the car responds well around corners. The only negative for us is that the 17″ alloys & tyres fitted to the Esprit-Alpine we tested were noisy, making faster driving less pleasurable, over wet roads in particular.
Pros
Brilliant value for money. Large car safety & drivability make longer journeys a pleasure not a chore. Very well equipped in all specs. The exterior upgrades have made it even more attractive.
Cons
Renault hasn’t updated the infotainment software. Rear leg room is poor. Noisy cabin in the wet.
Conclusion
The recent update to the Clio have only increased it’s kerb appeal. It’s well made, fun to drive, features great safety as well as being competitively priced. The Clio E-Tech is unashamedly aimed at fleet customers & for many public sector employees, choosing this Clio will substantially reduce their BIK. Real world mpg of 55+ is also a bonus ! Yes the infotainments not the most up to date & we found the largest alloys were noisy in the wet. That aside, it’s such an easy car to drive & performs so much more like a large car on the motorway, that it’s very hard to fault.
A Villefranche-sur-Mer 4.5/5
