Renault Scenic 2024 DRIVEN: The electric SUV to buy? | batchreviews (James Batchelor)
The Rena Scenic is back but the manner of its return is not quite how you might be expecting because it’s not an MPV it is like everything these days a pure electric SUV but before I tell you everything you need to know about it and most importantly whether you should be buying
One please do consider subscribing to my channel if you’re over the age of 30 you remember the original Renault Scenic it was a very rational and space efficient car and it pretty much created the small MPV craze during the ’90s and early naughties it was clever but like
All mpvs it was also a bit Dull so it’s little surprised that by 2019 Renault killed off the scenic thanks to families choosing SUVs over mpvs Renault doesn’t call this new Scenic ech Electric in SUV though it prefers the term family car but there’s no doubt it has SUV proportions it’s also quietly goodlooking I think there’s
Little evidence of the boxy lines that previous Scenic so proudly wore but having said that with an elongated roof line and the wheels pushed to the car’s Corners maximizing the wheelbase there is a nod to earlier scenix it looks like a roomy car on the outside but what about on the
Inside now the on paper stats for the scenic do seem to be pretty good now the boot measures 545 lers and that is very comparable to this car’s Rivals however stats only reveal part of the story because when you actually look at the boot it doesn’t
Seem to be quite as flexible as I would be hoping now there is no movable boot floor apparently Renault may be considering one but at the moment there is no movable boot floor so it means that you’ve got this enormous load lip I think loading heavy items in here will
Be back breaking work it is quite deep but like I say it seems to be very low down the actual boot floor happily though you do get 40 20 40 folding rear seats adding an extra layer of practicality initial impressions in the back of the scenic is very very good now
That seat is not set up in my driving position it’s all the way back probably set for something like 6’2 or even taller and I’m about 5′ 11 and I’ve got more than enough knee room Headroom is pretty good too and that’s mostly due to this clever panoramic roof I’ll explain
Why it’s clever a little bit later on but what I will say for now is the reason why there’s so much Headroom is compared to a conventional panoramic roof that needs to have a roller blind this doesn’t need a roller blind hence why you’ve got a lot more space really
Very good that other cool little features back here we’ve got little pockets on the backs of the seat to store all those oddments you’ve got a completely flat floor and the thing I like about this Arrangement is unlike the P E38 the center console does not
Jut out into the leg room so in theory well not in theory I think you could easily fit three people along here it might be a bit of a squeeze but I think it wouldn’t be too bad this I really like this isn’t just a conventional
Armrest oh no pull it down you’ve got extra bit of storage under here with some USBC charging ports you’ve got two cup holders but look at this they actually swivel and when you do that you can actually place things like tablets perhaps even your iPhone something which
I I didn’t think was uh a feature that you can actually design but wow that could be really great for children on Long Journeys it all seems very good back here doesn’t it and it is for the most part but there is one big disappointment for me back here and
That’s these seats now in the original Rena Scenic MPV they could slide backwards and forwards they could recline you could even remove them but in this car they are completely fixed and I think Renault might have missed a trick here now inside if you’ve been uh behind
The wheel of the latest mean the interior of the scenic won’t be much of a surprise to you because Renault has has really uh improved their Interiors that’s both in terms of design layout and importantly quality now first of all the design I think it looks very smart
Very upm Market I like the use of the different materials the ambient lighting here looks very swish indeed and look at these seats lovely materials lovely Fabrics used importantly no leather is used in the scenic at all they’re incredibly comfortable as well very support Ive it’s just a really well-considered
Interior now the tech if you’ve been in the mean this won’t be again much of a surprise to you but uh it’s a really Rena really on top of their game at the moment I love the large display in front of you there’s a lot of you can
Configure a lot of that change it to your personal requirements and then to the right you’ve got this large touchcreen and like an increasing number of car makers Akers these days Renault is using Google for its operating system and it’s it’s a really good decision because it just works so so well the
Screen quality is great nice and crisp nice and clear and the functionality is fantastic I particularly like this row of buttons here for your air conditioning and the temperature control there’s a lot of storage in here as well the door bins are huge the glove box
Again is of a massive size but this area here here really practical huge Cubbies we’ve got a big storage area under here it’s clear Renault has spent a lot of time making this interior as practical as possible the last thing which I absolutely love is this roof now opaque
Roofs they are nothing new but what’s clever about this is they a different segments so you can have the entire roof clear if you like or you can have it opaque but this is the clever bed you can have it in different sections so up front you can have it opaque to Shield
You from the Sun in the back you can have a completely clear roof or vice versa Rena has really done a fantastic job up here oh so Rena have been working with that musician John Michelle jar if you’re of a certain age you will know what I mean
And they he’s worked on certain sounds including The Pedestrian were o oh a bit oxygen let me know in the comments if you know what that means but sounds nice doesn’t it oh I like that Jean Michelle Jah hey he knows what he’s doing doesn’t he so
Scenic e tech it comes with two batch sizes 60 kwatt hours and 87 kwatt hours two electric motor power outputs as well 170 horsepower and that’s for the smaller battery and 220 horsepower for the long range larger battery and that’s the one that we’ve got here and immediate impressions are the power
Delivery is very very smooth now this isn’t a fantastically quick electric car not to 62 m now takes about 7.9 seconds but this car feels considerably quicker than its Chief rival the perso e308 not only has this car got slightly more power than the perso but crucially this car weighs considerably less than
The perso I shall put the precise figures uh lower down on the screen but it is noticeable another thing I’ve just noticed is this car is p away at you and as is the way with modern cars these days cars like to tell you that you’re
Doing things wrong all of the time and Rena have come up with a little ingenious way of switching all of this off there’s one button on the side of the dashboard here there we are I’ve switched all the safety systems off mad isn’t it so performance is measured and that’s exactly what you
Want from a family car you don’t want to be hurled into the back of the seat do you but this car does feel more sprightly more to get on with driving and getting down the road as opposed to the pjo e308 one other thing I really like about
This car is the steering now of course it’s got electric power steering you can’t expect it to be brimming with feel and feedback but again there’s Jean Michelle ja doing doing his business I love that I really do sorry where was I steering ah yes you expect
It to be brimming with feedback and and feel but it feels a lot more communicative than uh in the perso and even in something like a scoda enyak it’s light and it does weight up the faster that faster you go but it feels good I I think it gives a nice level of
Of feedback whil still feeling quite light and it doesn’t feel Hefty at all there are four levels of break regeneration they’re accessible via the paddles on the back of the steering wheel um I have to say I think Renault could have gone a little bit further
With this it’s even in the highest level of break regen let me just whack it up so that’s the highest level take my foot off the throttle and we come to a gentle hold it’s not completely one pedal driving which personally I like and I think once you’ve experienced one pedal driving in
Your electric car you never really want want to go back to a car that doesn’t have it and the levels of refinement in this car are seriously impressive and I mean that in two different two distinct ways firstly how quiet it is in here now I’ve said this before I’ve said this in
Many electric car videos you would assume an electric car would be deathly quiet to drive as soon as you take the engine away you’re going to have silence well that’s not always the case because as soon as you take that engine away you your ears tune into all sorts of noises
Tire noise wind noise rattles squeaks other little noises the car makes the engine does a good job at masking all of those noises so an electric car actually has to be way more refined than a petrol or a diesel car and Renault have done a great job here they’ve put extra sound absorption
Between the battery and the floor it’s got refinement levels of a seriously premium and expensive car and that leads me on to my next point because the way this car gets down the road you would think you’re in a car that costs a lot more than this does it drives down the
Road in a very assured and confident way it’s a very difficult thing to explain but it just feels so well sorted this car um the ride is comfortable the steering is light and and fairly communicative um but the whole chassis itself just feels very well set up for
The business of normal driving yes it’s not thrilling but you don’t want it to be thrilling because this is a family car for everyday mundane driving this is really good oh God I keep doing that keep putting the wipers on instead of the gear lever that is one of the problems
Having the gear lever right by the wipers you look like a complete numpty as for the range and efficiency Renault claims 260 M for the 60 KW hour battery version and up to 379 M for the 87 KW car now during my drive in the big battery car I was
Averaging 3.2 m per Kow hour which equates to 270 Mi now that’s a bit disappointing but I would blame the type of driving journalists do on press launches which isn’t always representative of real world driving I’d hope this would improve when I drive the scenic in the
UK when I first saw this car at the Munich mer show in September 2023 I was a little bit disappointed to be perfectly honest I thought Rena had missed a trick at not giving this car loads of quirky practical touches which the original Scenic MPV had but the more
Time I spent with this car on this launch and I’ve driven this car for a solid two days on this press launch it’s really got under my skin yes it might not have a huge number of quirky practical touches but there are enough features in this car to make it stand
Out and show that this car has been designed with families in mind I love the way this car looks I think the range is good for the money and that leads me on to my last point for an electric car it relative I know but for an electric car I think the
Pricing on this is very very competitive I’m going to stick my neck out here I think this Renault Scenic ech electric is the new electric family car benchmark
The original Renault Scenic was loved by families in the nineties and noughties. It pretty much created the whole mini-MPV craze, but times have changed and people-carriers aren’t as popular as they once were.
Renault has decided to reboot the Scenic as an electric SUV to rival the Skoda Enyaq and Peugeot E-3008. However, on account of its spacious interior, Renault prefers the term ‘family car’ than ‘electric SUV’.
It comes in two battery sizes: 60kWW, giving a claimed WLTP range of 260 miles, and a larger – and predicted best-seller – 87kWh battery should be good enough for 379 miles before it needs to be topped up.
If you’ve seen the Megane E-Tech’s interior, the Scenic’s won’t be too much of a surprise as it’s brimming with lovely design details and quality materials. back seat passengers also have loads of space and can make use of a clever centre armrest.
Watch my video review to see if it’s the electric SUV – sorry, family car – you should be buying.
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If I look a bit familiar then you might have seen me on Carbuyer and Auto Express YouTube channels in the past.
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#renault #scenic #review
00:01 – Intro
00:24 – Scenic MPV history
01:45 – Boot space
02:24 – Back seats
03:53 – Ingenious armrest
04:49 – Interior & technology
06:41 – Solarbay panoramic roof
07:14 – Jean-Michel Jarre
07:57 – Batteries and motors
08:16 – Performance and handling
13:00 – Efficiency
13:41 – Verdict
