{"id":211933,"date":"2025-12-26T13:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/211933\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T13:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:58:12","slug":"long-term-report-can-the-renault-scenic-convince-an-ev-newbie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/211933\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-term report: Can the Renault Scenic convince an EV newbie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The time has finally come \u2014 I\u2019ve embraced an electric car as a long-termer. Meet the Renault Scenic, the latest addition to our fleet.<\/p>\n

Renault is accelerating fast into the electric age. With the retro Renault 4 & 5 about to hit the road and the all-new Twingo following close behind, the brand\u2019s commitment to electrification is clear. Funky design and fully electric powertrains are now at the heart of Renault\u2019s future \u2014 and the Scenic is a big part of that story.<\/p>\n

For me, though, running an EV has never seemed especially practical. As Head of Video, I\u2019m often called on to criss-cross the country at short notice \u2014 usually with a car full of camera gear and a schedule that doesn\u2019t allow much time to sit at a charger. Add in the fact that I don\u2019t yet have a home charging point, and things get even trickier. My nearest charger is a couple of miles down the road, next to a coffee shop. Handy, yes \u2014 I can catch up on emails while I wait \u2014 but the combined cost of electricity, coffee and cake is starting to show in my monthly budget. Not to mention the effect on my expanding waistline.<\/p>\n

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Then there\u2019s space. When I started out in the motoring world back in the early 2000s, the Scenic was the archetypal MPV \u2014 a proper family workhorse built for tip runs, school runs and summer holidays. This latest version feels quite different. It\u2019s more of a large family hatchback than a true MPV. There\u2019s plenty of room, but not the cavernous practicality of the old models. Even the dog isn\u2019t entirely happy; he has to heave himself over a high boot lip, only to find a deep load bay with little view out of the rear window.<\/p>\n

According to the spec panel we get with every car delivered to us, the Scenic we have is the EV87, the 87 referring to the kWh. On paper, it should return around 381 miles from a single charge, but so far the reality is quite different.<\/p>\n

My first long run in the Scenic was from Southport in the North West to Leamington Spa for a filming session with Wheeler Dealers legend Mike Brewer \u2014 roughly 140 miles each way. The outbound leg used just over 50% of the charge, so I topped up en route, boosting it to around 60%. After a day\u2019s filming, I headed back north and rolled onto my driveway with just 5% battery remaining. After a 15-hour day, the last thing I wanted to do was hunt down a charger.<\/p>\n

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The next morning, after a quick dog walk, I returned to find the Scenic had dropped to 2% overnight. So this is what they mean by range anxiety. Thankfully, there\u2019s a rapid charger by a nearby supermarket, though by the time I got there, it had dipped again to 1%. Still, it made for the perfect opportunity to measure charge time and cost from near-empty to full using a public charger.<\/p>\n

Plugged in at 10:30am, I settled into Costa with a caramel latte and a slice of millionaire\u2019s shortbread \u2014 \u00a37.49 if you\u2019re counting. The charger\u2019s QR code feature is handy, letting you track charge progress and cost remotely. After about 90 minutes, the battery hit 98%, showing another 20 minutes to reach full. I decided to call it quits.<\/p>\n

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Total cost for the session: \u00a360.50. Roughly on par with a tank of petrol, though the Scenic\u2019s real-world range seems considerably less than you\u2019d get from an equivalent combustion car \u2014 and, of course, filling up with petrol takes a fraction of the time. Maybe the cold weather played a part, maybe my driving style, over the duration of the test, though we\u2019ll see if this figure changes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the only long-distance run this month. I\u2019ve also taken it to the North East on family duties, which meant a run up the M6, and a stop off at my favourite service station \u2013 Tebay. However, when I stopped to charge, the heavens opened, and I don\u2019t mean a gentle downpour. We\u2019re talking apocalyptic conditions. Now, unlike normal combustion engine cars, when you stop to fill up, the pump is located under a large canopy which protects you from the elements. However, all the chargers that I\u2019ve been to thus far have all been fully exposed.<\/p>\n

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So that\u2019s my gripes, and to be fair, a lot of those could be applied to general EV ownership. I\u2019m just getting it off my chest as a first-time EV owner. The Scenic itself though, is a really well put together piece of kit. It\u2019s certainly come a long way from the Scenics of old. This version is the esprit Alpine spec, so it comes well equipped with a large touch-screen infotainment centre which controls everything from your navigation and car settings to DAB radio and phone. What\u2019s nice though, is that the heating and ventilation controls have been kept separate, so you don\u2019t have to swipe through screens to change the temperature while on the move.<\/p>\n

The Scenic also features a Solarbay opacifying panoramic sunroof, which is identical to that of the Rafale, where it frosts at the touch of a button, rather than the need to slide back a screen, which impacts headroom. The seats are comfortable and supportive and fully adjustable and I\u2019m pleased to report that they\u2019re heated too, which is much needed on these colder mornings, plus the heated steering wheel too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still early days with the Scenic, and I\u2019m yet to find my rhythm with EV life. There are positives, certainly \u2014 it\u2019s quiet, refined and packed with tech \u2014 but also niggles. Chief among them: there\u2019s only one cupholder up front. Just one. There\u2019s easily room for a second, and its absence feels like an odd oversight in an otherwise well-thought-out cabin.<\/p>\n

The learning curve continues \u2014 but if nothing else, it\u2019s going to be an interesting few months finding out what living with Renault\u2019s reinvented Scenic is really like.<\/p>\n

Price as tested – \u00a341,995
\n Engine – EV87
\n Power – 217hp
\n Torque – 300Nm
\n 0-60mph – 7.9 seconds
\n Top Speed – 105mph
\n Range – 381miles
\n Emissions – 0 g\/km CO2
\n Mileage – 11,398 miles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The time has finally come \u2014 I\u2019ve embraced an electric car as a long-termer. Meet the Renault Scenic,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[110342,61,60,43,34545,18042,110395,38431],"class_list":["post-211933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-electric","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-range","tag-renault","tag-scenic","tag-suv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}