For over 25 years the Renault Scenic was the MPV for the masses. However in 2024 customers now want an SUV lookalike, so step forward the all-new electric Scenic E-Tech, an electric family car that now bears the Scenic moniker. We put one to the test recently & here’s what we found out.
What is it ?
An electric five-door family hatchback with plenty of room on board for up to five adults.
Model choice & prices
There are three trim levels. Entry level Techno, mid range Esprit Alpine & range topping Iconic. With two batteries being offered. A 62kWh & an 87kWh available on all three specs. Techno with the 62kWh battery costs from £37,495 up to £45,495 for Iconic with the larger 87kWh battery underneath. There are no options offered & just six body colours to choose from.
Specifications
All versions are fitted with heat pump & come very well appointed. Techno features 19″ diamond cut alloys, front & rear LED lights, automatic air-con, heated front seats & steering wheel, wireless smartphone connectivity, a wireless charger, a rear camera & a 12″ central touchscreen. Esprit Alpine adds 20″ alloys, a fabric grey dash, a sports steering wheel, blue accents in the cabin & Esprit Alpine badging inside & out. Range topping Iconic has bespoke 20″ alloys, a panoramic sunroof, digital rear view camera with 360 degree view, a hands-free parking system, electrically adjustable memory drivers seat with massage function & a Harman Kardon 12-speaker audio system.
Outside
The Scenic E-Tech is definitely not an MPV offering up an elongated Megane E-Tech look – they’re both built on the same platform – with more space in the cabin especially in the rear. Up front you get a raised honeycomb grille at the front with deep set boomerang LED daytime lights & slim LED headlights on the top corners. The rear features high light clusters & a shark fin antenna. The highlight is best enjoy from inside. The solarbay opacifying panoramic sunroof, which can be adjusted to lighten or darken the cabin using polymer-dispersed liquid crystals that make individual sections of the glass opaque at the touch of a button.
Inside
It’s all very well put together if a little safer than the offerings from Kia, Hyundai & BYD. As much as 24% of the materials in the Scenic are recycled, with four-fifths of the dashboard ticking that box. Even the seats are partly made of recycled bottles so Renaults sustainability is good. Our test car Iconic had the lovely grain coated textile grey dash top finish, matching the door armrests & seat colours.
The touchscreen leans slightly towards the driver which is good, especially if you need to get into a menu quickly. Thankfully the climate controls are still physical switches, located underneath the screen. Elsewhere you can link into the adaptive cruise control & infotainment via the steering wheel toggles, the volume controls are still on the side of steering wheel stalk & the driving modes are altered via a circular MULTI SENSE button, but pretty everything else is adjusted via the touchscreen.
You change gear with a steering wheel lever on the right with a starter button to the drivers left. Our Iconic test car also featured a digital rear view mirror which worked nicely. If you want to alter the sunroof, you can do this via an overhead button or with Google voice assist.
Range & performance
The 60kWh model offers a range of 260 miles, whilst the larger 87kWh version will go to 379 miles on the WLTP combined cycle. If you opt for the smaller battery with 168bhp/280Nm on offer this has a top speed of 93mph & a 0-62mph time of 8.6 seconds. Choose the larger battery & you’ll add almost 50bhp with 300Nm which is good for a 7.6 second shunt to 62mph & a top speed of 105mph. Both are front-wheel drive with a front motor set-up & if you’ve driven any dual-motor EV’s, you’ll notice that neither even in Sport Mode, accelerates like the Model 3, EV6, IONIQ 5 or ENYAQ, offering a more sensible electric ride. In mid-range though things get better so motorway overtaking is very impressive.
As a heat pump is standard on all models. This help’s maintain the battery range in more extreme weather & keeps the air-con & heating at an optimum temperature. Renaults Google Maps SatNav is linked to the battery management system enabling the battery to be in the best condition when charging.
Charging
Maximum DC charging is 150kW, so competitive. Renault claims a charging curve that averages 110kW to replenish 50kWh of your battery in just 30 minutes, enough for 2 hours of motorway driving. The standard onboard AC charger is 7kW, so slower charges at home means a 0-100% time of 8 hours on the 60kWh battery & 12 hours for the larger 87kWh version.
Driving modes & brake regeneration
There are four driving modes; Sport, Eco, Normal & ‘Perso’ which lets you choose your own combination of settings. If you select Eco then the car won’t go above 70mph if you’ve selected cruise control. There are four levels of brake regeneration, which are selected using the paddles behind the steering wheel, a really simple & intuitive way to adjust these. These range from zero, through 1, 2 & 3 which offers one-pedal driving. All work well with no discernible transition from brakes to acceleration.
Safety
The Scenic E-Tech has 30 driver assistance systems, including lane assist, adaptive cruise control with lane centring, active emergency braking & blindspot monitoring. It’s also fitted with new spyware literally, a system that keeps an eye on the drivers style & awareness part of monitoring regulations which are coming into force in the near future.
Practicality
As we’ve already alluded to, the Scenic is impressively roomy aided by the flat floor in the rear. A 545 litre boot is more good news with two storage spaces located underneath the boot floor.
Up front there’s a small glove box, large door pockets, under armrest storage, a number of areas in the centre binnacle, the wireless phone charger, two USB’s & a 12v socket. Rear passengers also get two centrally locate USB-C ports & a fold down armrest with twin cup holders within, plus rear seat pockets.
Driving
As with the Megane E-Tech, the gear lever is located on the right of the steering wheel, so you select Drive & away you go. It’s all done in silence as well. The steering is light but with little feedback, so you can have a lot of fun on winding roads. Even on poor road surfaces the Scenic travels pretty well – much better then the Megane E-Tech – with the suspension designed to handle the bumps which it duly does impressively. There’s little or no body roll even on tighter bends. If for whatever reason you need to make a sudden change of direction, you’ll notice a slight delay whilst the car works out what you want to do which I found very enjoyable. You also sit quite high up, so your command of the road ahead is very good.
The regenerative set-up means that you can almost one-pedal drive once you’re used to it. Compared to much of the competition, the Scenic E-Tech doesn’t compromise on the French car comfort & soft ride we’ve come to expect, even when it weighs in at a rather hefty 1900kg. It’s perhaps not as much fun to drive as the Kia EV6 or Hyundai Ioniq’s but it’s not been designed that way. And if you want more thrill then the smaller Megane E-Tech delivers in spades.
On the motorway it’s hard to fault. Quiet, comfortable & spacious. The on board safety tech works well. Selecting cruise control is a simple affair & you can even view your distance in seconds from the car in front a sobering but effective way to leave a larger gap. Connecting wirelessly to Apple CarPlay was easy & the Harmon Kardon sound system is pretty good too.
The Scenic showed it’s practicality when four of us drove to a local tennis match in it with plenty of space in the rear for a fifth occupant if required.
Pros
Two battery choices, a 379 mile range & a heat pump means its off to a good start. Comfortable & quiet to be in. All versions are incredibly well kitted out. Build quality all around is impressive. On board tech & safety works well too.
Cons
The interior & exterior are a little safe. It doesn’t offer much acceleration excitement.
Verdict
Renault have taken a pragmatic approach to their electric offerings & the Scenic is very much a family EV that’s comfortable to be in & decent to drive. It’s also extremely well equipped, comes with 150kW charging speeds & all versions have a heat pump an extra on many competitors cars. The cabin is also spacious & it’s well priced for the sector. Arguably you don’t need to choose anything other than entry level Techno to get a very nice car indeed. On the down side, it doesn’t offer the straight line pull that many EV’s do, instead focusing on efficiency & comfort rather than performance. We liked it.
A Tour de France 4.5/5
