Renault Austral - Engines, performance & drive

The Renault Austral is front-wheel drive like most family SUVs, so those after the additional traction benefits of four-wheel drive for slippery conditions will need to look at alternatives such as the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, and Toyota RAV4. 

What is the Renault Austral like to drive?

In town

At lower speeds, the suspension of the Austral struggles to filter out the worst of the bumps on broken sections of Tarmac or impacts with speed bumps around town. A Tucson is far more composed over such surfaces, in comparison.

Adjustable regenerative braking is a good and unusual feature for a hybrid, because it increases the energy you can put back into the battery, which helps save fuel. Unfortunately, the brakes are let down by an inconsistent feeling pedal. This robs you of confidence when braking by sometimes feeling firm and, at other times, soft, making it hard to judge when trying to come to a smooth stop.

Previously, the top-of-the-range Iconic Esprit Alpine Austral had a neat trick of four-wheel steering (called 4Control), which was a benefit for anyone parking in a tight car park because it shrunk the 11.4m turning circle of regular Australs to 10.1m. For context, that’s the turning circle you’d get in a supermini such as the Renault Clio. However, as you’ll read in subsequent sections, the four-wheel steer system didn’t benefit handling at higher speeds, so this feature has since been dropped, making the Austral less manoeuvrable than a Kia Sportage with its 10.9m turning circle. At least the steering is light, helping to ease the burden of the extra work you’ll have to put in to slotting the Austral into a space.

On A- and B-roads

As you increase your pace, you’ll notice that light steering doesn’t instil much confidence, and you’ll have to learn to trust in the Austral’s strong reserves of grip. 

Initially, the Austral was available with four-wheel steering, and just like the last Renault to use such a system – the Renaultsport Megane – there was a delay between the front wheels turning and the rear steering system reacting. It gave the impression that the rear end was about to lose grip, which was magnified by the fact that the steering reaction was too fast for the Austral’s body control. It meant that a keen turn-in to a corner caused the car to lurch on its springs unless you were exceptionally precise and deliberate with your inputs when driving down a twisty B road. Happily, the four-wheel steer has since been ditched, and as a result, the Austral handles in a more natural manner in the bends – even if that comes at the expense of low-speed manoeuvrability. Body control over undulations is nothing more than okay, though.

As you increase your pace, you’ll notice that light steering doesn’t instil much confidence, and you’ll have to learn to trust in the Austral’s strong reserves of grip. 

On the motorway

The light steering of the Austral is less of an issue on a straight motorway. What is a problem is the pronounced rustling sound around the door mirrors from 50mph upwards. At 70mph, the Austral was much less refined than the Hyundai Tuscon when we tested them back-to-back.

At such speeds, the ride, whether you go for the entry-level Techno on 19-inch wheels, or the mid-range Techno Esprit Alpine and above with 20-inch wheels, is too firm, fidgety, and occasionally choppy, with expansion joints and ridges causing a sharper reaction than we'd like from both axles.

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0-62mph acceleration and top speed

The Austral defaults to moving off under electric power, so it’s incredibly smooth when shuffling along in stop-and-go traffic. The car often defaults to EV mode, making for relaxed progress. When the petrol unit fires up, it remains subdued even under hard acceleration and isn’t as noisy or droney as a Nissan Qashqai e-Power or Toyota RAV4, for example.

However, when you ask for greater acceleration where the engine needs to kick in, there's noticeable hesitation as the car works out how best to use its two power sources. This gap in power delivery could be a surprise if you need quick acceleration to make an opening in the traffic or go for an overtake. 

When the system has figured out what to do, performance is respectable, with the 0-62mph dash despatch in 8.4 seconds. That’s a little slower than the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid, no doubt caused by the Austral’s prolonged gear changes, which are nowhere near as crisp as those of the smooth automatic used in the Tucson.