Renault Scenic Iconic Long Range long-term test: SUV trades space for style

Verdict

The Renault Scenic has never looked better – the switch to EV has produced a car that lives up to its name better, but quite a bit of the old MPV practicality has been lost en route. It’s still a great choice for families, though.

• Mileage: 3,490
• Efficiency: 3.2 miles/kWh

Electric cars were supposed to revolutionise car design. The idea was that once the engine, gearbox, fuel tank and other bulky components of petrol or diesel cars were replaced by batteries, which are far more adaptable in terms of dimensions and where they can be located, designers would have the scope to get wild and funky.

It hasn’t really happened yet, as far as I can see, but Renault’s latest Scenic is, at least, a handsome beast by mid-size family car standards – especially compared with the MPVs that preceded it in the Scenic bloodline.

We’re now a few months into our time with the Scenic on our long-term test and I remain a fan of the latest Renault EV design direction. It’s far from revolutionary, but the super-sized hatchback shape with its SUV overtones looks taut and purposeful on the road.

It’s nicely set off by neat details including concave surfaces on the doors and tailgate, a hexagonal grille and the piano-key design of the daytime running lights. Those blacked-out features of the front end are highlighted all the more on our test car by the optional Arctic White metallic paint with a Diamond Black roof (£1,250). If you choose darker colours, the features become far less prominent.

While the new Scenic is a much sharper thing to look at than the MPVs that went before it, anyone familiar with previous generations will have to manage their expectations slightly when they get inside. A lot of the versatility you expect from an MPV has been stripped away and, as with the exterior, there’s little evidence of the electric powertrain freeing the designers’ hands.

The cabin is simple and stylish rather than luxurious with its varying material textures and slick portrait touchscreen. Storage is good, too, especially the large open cubbies ahead of the central armrest that have a lot of capacity for stuff with no lids – although they do make it look a bit untidy when full. The big door pockets will take a litre bottle of water, the wireless charging shelf is ideally located and there’s a space in the front of the armrest for your key card – although I am constantly getting out of the car and leaving it there.

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What you don’t get is the fancy folding and sliding rear seats from MPV Scenics of old. Space in the back seats is decent and significantly better than in the smaller Renault Megane, but they don’t slide or recline. You can fold the seat backs down in a 40:20:40 split but they don’t go flat, and together with a pronounced loading lip, they make for an uneven floor when carrying larger items. The fabric pulls that release the seats are also less easy to use than plastic catches, but the ISOFIX child seat points are easy to access in their plastic surrounds.

The Scenic’s boot is on the narrow side too and you won’t get a set of golf clubs in without taking the driver out of the bag. Lots of depth brings the total luggage space up to a decent 545 litres, though. The cable storage space is huge and there are two additional stowage areas under the floor, plus these spaces are divided by a polystyrene-type material that may not stand up well to bumps and knocks.    

One nod Renault has made to the Scenic’s utility roots is the wide rear armrest, which opens to reveal cup-holders, charging ports, storage and mounts for phones or tablets when they’re being used to watch movies or play games. These will hold the average phone or tablet, but we’ve found you have to remove the chunky protective covers that children tend to have on their tablets to get them to fit.

Renault Scenic Iconic: second fleetwatch

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It’s a fact of EV life that you have to carry a charging cable in your car, but some models definitely do charging-cable storage better than others. Our Renault Scenic is one of the best out there, with an absolutely huge area under the boot floor.

The size of the space means you can casually drop in the Type 2 charging cable without worrying, and there’s still loads of room for the emergency three-pin plug cable, as well as quite a bit of other stuff.

Renault Scenic Iconic: first fleetwatch

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It may no longer be an MPV, but the Renault Scenic still offers plenty of space

Historically, the Renault Scenic built its reputation on being practical, and our Scenic long-term test car has been getting a thorough workout in this respect. What have we learned? Well, this is not the MPV Scenic of old, but it’s easy to cart stuff around in. The rear seats fold almost flat and the cable storage area under the boot floor is large. There’s a bit of a loading lip to hoist things over, but the 545-litre boot space is helpfully square.

Renault Scenic Iconic: first report

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French SUV joins the fleet and takes on Ford’s new Explorer

• Mileage: 2,330
• Efficiency: 3.1 miles/kWh

The Renault Scenic has joined the Auto Express long-term test fleet and, never ones to stand on ceremony, we threw it straight into a twin test against Ford’s latest great EV hope, the new Explorer. 

We’ve got six months to find out how Renault’s new family car stacks up as an everyday companion, but a quick measure-up against a direct rival was a very illuminating way to kick things off.

The full twin-test verdict will be along shortly, but there’s a lot we can tell you right now about my car. Preconceptions can be a dangerous thing when reviewing cars, but I’ll admit to harbouring a few where the new Scenic is concerned. I’ve already run a Renault Megane as a long-termer, and a Nissan Ariya, which uses the same platform and battery as the Scenic. 

My main issue with the Megane was the poor rear-seat space, and the Scenic addresses that – at six feet tall, I can sit easily behind my own driving position. Otherwise, the modern cabin with some interesting material choices (more on those later) and the slick Google-based infotainment system are similar. 

The Ariya was far less of a useful guide to what the Scenic would be like than I expected. That’s because while the French car is certainly playing the SUV card with its exterior design, it all feels like a bit of a bluff next to the Nissan (and the Ford for that matter). 

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The driving position in my new Scenic is noticeably lower and more car-like than in the Ariya or Explorer. You don’t get that commanding view out, and the ride is firmer but more composed. It’s a matter of personal taste, but I’d take the Scenic’s more jiggly progress on the average B-road in exchange for its superior ability to take bigger bumps and sudden undulations in its stride, without crashing and shuddering (in the case of the Ariya) or bouncing about (like the Explorer). The Renault’s nimbleness makes for a more enjoyable drive, disguising its 1,918kg kerbweight. Many, though, will appreciate the cosseting feel of a traditional SUV. 

Our Scenic is the range-topping Iconic Long Range model with no options, except for the £1,250 metallic paint. So it costs £46,745 as tested with 20-inch wheels of an unusual design, a 360-degree camera system, the 12-inch portrait infotainment screen, a 12.3in driver’s display screen and its party piece, the Solarbay panoramic roof, which can electrically switch from opaque to clear at the touch of a button. It’s around £4,000 cheaper than the rear-wheel-drive Ford Explorer with the larger battery that we tested it against.

Family buyers might panic at the sight of the Scenic’s interior. The light-grey fake leather and textiles look like a recipe for disaster for those with young children. Our kids are a bit past the ‘let’s colour-in the headrest’ stage, but we’ll be keeping an eye on how well the fabrics stand up to use over the course of the long-term test. 

What the choice of materials does do, in combination with the Solarbay roof, is create an airy feel. It’s also a premium ambience, perhaps not as plush as the Explorer’s cabin, but more modern and design-led. Renault’s compromise between touchscreen controls and physical buttons, either under the screen or on the wide array of steering column stalks, is working very nicely so far.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.