Renault Megane E-Tech review | Renault's fantastic EV up close!

Finally, here and I have an early look at this car to help judge it actually for the AAA Ireland. Car Awards so Ill have a more in depth, uh bit of time with the car in a few weeks on the channel. But this is a very quick initial look at it, so just under 38 000 Euro for the 40 kilowatt hour battery rising to 41.995 for the 60 kilowatt hour battery. And if you want the top spec car youre, looking at almost 49 000 Euro. When you have leather seats, long range theres, a version that goes up to 220 brake horsepower, theres 130 brake horsepower and a lot of people have said 40, its just a little bit too low in terms of battery size. Now that remains to be seen its not the biggest car in the world, so you could argue that well, its technically kind of a city sized car. Why does it need a massive battery youll charge? It faster youll still get around 300 kilometers from the smaller range battery the 40 kilowatt hour, and then, if you go for the 60 kilowatt hour, its well into the 400, so there is a bit of a jump there. If you do need the range now Im going to take in a little tour around the car, first of all well have a look at the front, the back the insides. So if youre very curious about the Megan E Tec have a look front has LED lights in the back actually has LED lights.

Also. Now the Renault badge does not light up at night time. Some people have asked me that already so you get these daytime running lights down the front as well couple of creases in the bonnet so its quite an attractive nose. You can get up to 20 inch Alloys, they will affect your range standards are 18 inch and then people have kind of asked the size of the car. So yes, its quite like an ID3 in terms of length. However, it just its a little bit more Coupe. I like in The Styling, I suppose the roof isnt as isnt as high up and then more LED lights on the back of the vehicle. Theyre, probably pulsating a little bit on on camera, but uh theyre very dead straight, and they look really great at night time. So that red strip, just you know, looks good it just kind of lends itself to two big fat exhausts here. Doesnt it a Claire Williams, Style 172., so different, different textures and colors going on youve got the black roof, the Chrome across, and the different color uh paint, obviously as well. So I think its a its a pretty attractive. Looking car the door handles pop out um when you walk up towards the vehicle uh. Obviously they are tucked away here for rear, something like that um, depending on trim spec, you have the blind spot, as you can see there in your mirrors, and your charging port is on the passenger side and this part of the world um just standard CCS support.

Option here as well, so you can charge away a couple of options there also interested in the Renault badge on the on the port. These are the upgraded alloy wheels 20 inch and for accessing the boot, its a rather unusual little button there, and it is quite a deep boot. You know drops down quite a bit huge huge lip going on here. Some storage for cables included definitely makes life easier. Uh, you get a lace that couple of shopping hooks, obviously, but thats sort of about it. So quite quite a deep Boot and yeah youll fit definitely fit the week shopping inside no problem at all. That window actually is very, very small Ill. Tell you about that. In a second 440 is the boot by 22 liters to store your cables underneath speaking of charging 130 kilowatt charging is how fast the car can do. Thats pretty good, but todays standards have a think about it. When was the last time, you saw a charger in Ireland that was 130 kilowatts and wasnt ionsi, its still very, very rare, so theres a good bit of future proofing into the car. That means, if you did get 130 kilowatt charging youd get to 80. In about 20 ish minutes, certainly below 30, and these are kind of the arguments for having a slightly smaller battery. But let me know in the comments would do you think 40 kilowatt hour is acceptable in an EV of this size in 2022.

Or would you just rather see options, maybe starting at 60, maybe even 50, but certainly something that competes directly with the ID3 at 77 kilowatt hours usable? So, in the point of view, tour of the car continues here. So this carpeted areas inside for not having things rattle around obviously youve got a flat floor ground or BV easily marked from kids and easily wiped, obviously as well uh isofix, I have a little corporate holders: theyre nice, no armrest in the rear bench and a lot Of materials on the car are recycled Plastics, some of them recycled you kind of get a sense from these seats. Obviously, tough spec will have leather available Im, not sure if this part is kind of trying to hint at you that its a its a two seater strictly um, but it kind of feels like it so heres an adult. I dont really think youd be getting three adults here. Somehow that said, if you have your seat all the way down its a little bit hard to get your feet under plenty of leg room, though for knees, so thats all right and uh same with the with the head height, you know its actually, it grows once Youre inside once youre inside the car thats the view from the back seat to be pointy pretty pointy here, and there is your phone charging tray, which Ill tell you more about in a second, because Ive Ive noticed something about.

There are two USB C charging ports tucked away under here and then two air vents also. So let me show you around this part of the car now and give you an idea of what the new Megan e tag is like to be behind the wheel of so again carpet in here for keys and stopping things rattle stitching along here, which its nice Nice touch um same with a bit of Alcantara here and chrome, and that extends then to the dashboard. So youve got the speaker style material here and then beyond that you have more Alcantara along that strip of the car, its a Google uh driven system. So when you put in any sort of search for an area uh, if you wanted to find the blue Haven, for example, it will tell you how long itll take to get there and also what uh bash your range youll have when you get there. So Google system is actually pretty good use it in Volvos and pole, star and other cars like that and just a nice, a nice little layer of knowing what range youll have when you get there. So that is the continued interior of the car decent quality. Definitely dont get the sense that theyve kind of had to skimp back to put batteries in now. This bit here easily slots a phone inside so while thats for charging – and this bit is for resting your hand on if youre trying to select something.

This allows you to stick a phone in landscape mode and I just wonder where people be watching things they shouldnt be watching when theyre driving also really great high resolution on the display. So no matter what youre looking at so just see. If I can change the view here for you now, but yeah you can get your nav also in that Center uh instrument display and its just very, very sharp, lovely lovely resolution, uh funky enough air vents, also in the car here, so its quirky enough and different Enough but really I do love the steering wheel, flat, bottomanos, a couple of nice buttons, um cruise control and at the distance in the car in front. So its all its all very cleverly laid out. Youre not looking through menus shortcut, puts lots of things, and I think everybody just about everybody will be happy enough with how you can use the screens and the functions of them again just in terms of storage. So you have these dividers here they can be moves. Whatever way you want them to to be moved and you can have more space, less space hold a drink cup holder. Your armrest is under here and, interestingly, you dont really see them. Until again, you go looking a bit like the rear ones. You have two USB C charging ports just under the armrest. The armrest itself is here put a bit of space for hiding things. First thing: youll notice behind the wheel is how sharp the steering is so very direct as soon as you have any adjustments, theres.

Just great steering, apart from the rare occasion where youre really pushing on and youre really going into a turn, youre trying to nail the car into a very sharp corner, its very, very well behaves. It will probably understand a little bit if you do push on Ive been impressed by the ride quality, even though this is on 20 inch Alloys interesting thing about the car. You know much like you think of Nissan and electric and you think of the leaf. Well, theres, not really any different with this. I just feel you think of the Zoe, So Renault have made whats heading for half a million uh electric cars that they now have on the roads, and the Zoe has been famous that one serious Edge that it had over a lot of competitors was that it Could do 22 kilowatt charging using public Chargers, same story with the Megan E Tec thats a standard and thats something that many of the competitors may not even be able to do, but certainly will charge you extra four. So that is a significant Edge that the car has. It never feels underpowered, even with that entry 130 brake horsepower rising to, I think its 218 now thats it thats a quick Megan, because actually, when you think about it in some ways you know its not the Cleo is on the same comparable size or anything, but It it doesnt, look like a vastly bigger car than the Cleo, so think of 218 break horsepower, and you kind of get an idea of how fun the car is potentially able to be.

There is quite an audible kind of grown from the car that will be heard outside, so the idea of a dog or a human, not hearing you is hopefully reduced. Certainly, I mean, despite all the noises that they are putting into EVS theres still occasions where youre driving up behind people. You know on a shared piece of for pattern, Road or whatever, and they just dont hear you and yeah thats about that takes a bit of getting used to as an EV driver, especially youve got to be careful with that, so theres, actually technically four levels of Of regen, but its its really three theres paddles on the back of the steering wheel that do that um the most severe level it doesnt quite give you one pedal driving but its not far off it. So not as severe as you know, something like again that you pedal in Nissan or even um. I think its the eye pedal. They call it in Kia, certainly Hyundai um its not quite as severe as that, but still very, very usable. You do hear the outside world going on a gold bit um, not the most insulated of cars, and that in that sense the other thing is the energy consumption. So it is not budging really, which in one sense is good but its hovering around 18 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers, and I would have expected to see something a little bit closer to 15, perhaps without a shot over doubt.

However, and especially when youre factor in the price of it, it is one of the most engaging electric cars that Ive driven to drive theres, actually a good bit of fun going on in it um. Yes, it has its weight limitations as every EV kind of does. Unless youre spending, you know well into six figures on them, but you know genuine its sharp to drive. It handles quite well its its absolutely nippy, so it definitely theres a fun Factor element to it. No doubt about it: good bit of safety stuff on board with the car as well. So youve got blind spots. You can spec a camera with a stream view, because the rear view mirror is actually really really small and thats without anybody sitting in that middle seat. If there is bar the you know, camera sensor reverse sensing camera. I dont know how youd see at the back of the car its really really small um, so it it will know if youre trying to open a door on top of cyclists and pedestrians theres loads of safety stuff. It even has a couple of things: theres, some agreement that Renault have between firefighters and France, so they can douse the flames on an EV, sometimes in an air or more Renault client. You can do it in five minutes on the Megan E Tec and theres a QR code on the windscreen they can scan to find out where in the car are the batteries and all this stuff – and I do wonder, do firefighters in places like here in Ireland Get training and these kind of newer things that you just you know you dont, have to think about with cars in the past, so very uh easy to drive in a motorways also because it has active cruise control, it can stop start with traffic, and you know Anything that makes life easier, particularly when youre dealing with the M50 every day and the traffic that can come with us can be.

You know a little bit annoying, so that kind of stuff can make life a little bit easier, um but yeah. I just overall feeling you know I I really do like it um. I had a good spinning at last night as well and uh, just with the dashboard wrapping around you and all the various different lights that come as part of the package. It really was a very pleasant place to sit, I think, to be fair to the car. The only probably questionable thing about it is the size of the battery the entry level model think maybe people would have been expecting at least a 50 kilowatt hour. So to go for 40, I mean its not to say there isnt the option of of the 60 and again, if you want some that will charge a little bit faster and you dont need massive range and sort of somewhere between 250 and 300 kilometers. Well, do you just fine, then you could argue that theyve made the car a little bit more affordable than some of the competitors in the same segment. So theres options there, I suppose, is uh is what is what Im trying to say, but overall Ive been really impressed with it um as as with any model really, you know what will stock be like, especially at the start, but all round is a fun car To drive with good charging speeds, I think good looks and a couple of options for Batteries.

Then I think around our putting their best foot reasonably forward with the Megan E Tec, its. Finally, here at the Megan E Tech, I hope youve enjoyed this little look around at it today. Certainly a striking looking car in my opinion, looks really really good. You know, even as as you look all the time you notice different bits on it, like that kind of. I wouldnt call it carbon fiber, but there was a strip on the other side of it um price. I think the entry price of it actually isnt bad at all. The thing that is probably question markable is the 40 kilowatt hour battery. Some of you will just find thats a little bit too low, but do as I said. Let me know your thoughts on it. Um there will be more trim specs of this car arriving into dealers. Its literally is just landed, so go have a look at one for yourself, compare it to something like the ID3. It probably will fall a little bit cheaper, but then again as soon as you start, specking it up comparable, totally comparable and then the advantage of the RD3 will have is it will have a bigger battery. So thats also something to bear in mind. And if you have any comments or questions or thoughts about the car, what do you think of it? Please do leave any comments in the comment section down below um questions. Anything like that thats.

What were here for and if you have already ordered one. Let us know what color you went for the six colors available in the car from launch anyway, hope this has helped in some way. Well have a longer look of the car in more detail a little later on in the year uh.