My dad’s car – 2024 Renault Megane E-Tech
In this video, it’s Father Hubnut’s wheels again. This is my dad’s latest car. He’s actually had it over a year now. It’s a Renault Man E Tech. Uh, so he’s still firmly committed to the electric lifestyle. It was launched a couple of years ago now. It’s kind of based on the Nissan ARA platform. Uh, so um it’s probably more closely related to that than an actual man. uh but uh electric frontwheel drive. Uh this has got the bigger battery which I think is 60 kW hours. Claimed range of around 280 uh miles. It’s got a heat pump so it’s got an efficient heating system and my dad has generally been very very pleased with it. Let’s take a look around. At what point does a new car review become a used car review? I’m not entirely sure but uh yeah, that’s what it is. We got big blingy 20-in wheels. not looking loving the look of that profile. And uh perhaps one of the smallest rear windows I’ve ever seen. And wait till you see it from the inside. But uh I think it’s a nice bit of styling. It’s not overly offensive. I quite like these strakes down the roof. I’ve just walked close enough for it to unlock cuz I’ve got the key in my pocket. At which point it springs the front door handles out. Uh the rear door handles are hidden up here. It’s actually that entire piece. And uh here’s the rear seats. We’ll try those out in a moment. Uh we’ll have a quick look inside, seeing as it’s inviting us to. I quite like the trim. It reminds me of BX Grey Tweed. Oh, now it’s waking up. See, it’s got Google builtin. We got flashy screens all over the place in this bad boy. We’re currently on 85% of battery and uh yeah, we’ve got 210 claim miles of range. Uh, we’re not going to get to test all of that today. We got a stalk for the gear selector, stalk for the wipers, stalk for the radio, which even has a knob on the back of it, I note. And this button, this button is very important because it disables quite a few of the driver aids, which is obviously a very, very good thing. But yeah, no clutter down the middle because we got gear control here and then electronic handbrake, which is automatic. You don’t generally have to do anything. We should probably have a look at what is under the bonnet. I’m going to have to put the specs up. Um I haven’t done my usual level of research on this one cuz I’ve just driven down from Wales today. And uh we’re going out for dinner in a bit. So I’ve got to get this done before we go for dinner. There we go. Oh yes. Uh that’ll probably be your charger gubbins on top there. Sort of looking a bit like an engine. Uh the motor will be buried beneath that somewhere. It has got quite a high charge rate. If you can find a DC charger so equipped, I think it’ll charge at about 150 kW. So, um you can put 120 mi of range in in just half an hour, uh I believe. Uh obviously you got your screen wash over there, brake fluid there, and uh coolant you shouldn’t have to do anything with. But there you are. There’s your bonnet release. Nice bright and yellow, which you can obviously see when the bonnet’s shut and uh the wipers peeking out there. We will test those momentarily. She’s got um LED pure vision headlights. Uh we’re not going to get to test those today. It’s actually look sun. Actual sun. Uh but there we go. The man eet tech. Uh let’s hop aboard and see what it’s actually like in here. So, one detail I’ve noticed immediately is that this bit of trim actually overlaps in there. So, as you close the door, that bit of trim goes into there. Is it just me or does that look like it’ll trap things? But I suppose you could trap things in a door well enough. I quite like uh the stitching. That’s quite good. Uh but uh yeah, there’s the screen in front of us. So, you can change the screens to various things. I don’t want to mess too much with my dad’s settings. Uh but this is the screen he likes. So, if I put my foot on the brake, hit the power button, wake it all up. There we go. So, all the safety gear is on at the moment. If I press this button down here, uh, it should, yeah, if I press it twice now, we got the lane departure is turned off and also the speed limiter warning will visual, but it won’t beep at us annoyingly. So, I like that. So the stalk over here, put my foot on the brake and uh press down to go into drive. Press up to go into reverse and press the button on the end here. Uh puts it into park. So all very simple. There’s a reversing camera. Uh I’ve just cleaned the lens off. But uh yeah, we got all the information here. It’s trying to for my dad’s phone. Uh electric. You can see various things. You can program the heating to come on at certain times. Uh, you can set battery limits. So, when you’re DC charging, uh, you can tell it to not never go higher than 85%. If you want to maximize battery health, uh, and speed up your charging time if you disable the last 15%. Uh, the car will charge up quicker and it’s better for the health of the battery. So, I only use the 100% if you’re genuinely going to do a long trip and need that 100%. So, my dad’s currently got the max set to 100. Oh, look, you can just do it like that. Oh, wow. So, that’s nice and easy. Uh, so good good heater controls as well. Look, we’ve got actual buttons for heater controls. That’s always nice. Uh, hazard lights. Oh, no. I bet you can change it in the settings somewhere, but that is one of the worst indicator noises ever. I don’t like that at all. Uh, but there we are. Um, charging pad there for a phone if your phone is so equipped. Uh, we got storage variously. Oh, look. You can move that around so you can change um where you have that. That’s a cup holder there. Cup holder there. Um we got some storage under here and a couple of very sneakily hidden um USB typeC’s that you can’t actually see from the driver’s seat. But uh there’s your mints and your drugs. Remember dad keeps his drugs everyone. Uh that doesn’t open anymore. But note down here, look, there’s a 12vt power outlet there. How unconvenient is that? It’s um it it’s miles away. Can’t get anywhere near it. Very strange. So, there’s our power. Um auto lights. We’ve got paddles to adjust the level of regen. So, that’s when the motor turns into a generator when you’re braking or going down a hill. Uh so, you can change how hard it does that with that control there. We’ve got a glove box here. Um fairly small, but uh decent storage in the doors. And again, bit of material on the dash rather than black plastic. Frameless, mostly mirror. But yeah, that’s your rear window, folks. It’s like reversing a Lamborghini Count dash. Terrible. Uh map reading lights. Have we got here? Oh yeah, there we are. Touch sensitive. That’s That’s quite funky. Uh we got uh Oh, yeah. I got a light for our Hello. Uh our little courtesy mirror there. So there we go. Weird steering wheel. Why is the steering wheel this shape? It makes a quartic steering wheel seem quite boring. It’s got all sorts of weird shapes on it. Bit strange going through the hands, but uh very direct steering. Uh that is full lock from the center position. So, it’s just over a turn uh lock to lock. Uh shouldn’t dry steer. Very bad for the car. Um but yeah, nice nice head restraints. Bit dark in here. And I will say generally it feels a bit like you’re driving around in a crash helmet. Uh but uh it is a very safe car. So maybe that’s not so averse a phrase at all. Oh, there’s good news folks. Have you seen this? Look, we’ve got electronic protection. Thank goodness. I was worried we didn’t have electronic protection. I will say the uh electronic locking is a bit gung-ho uh when it’s um you’re walking to and from the car, but uh I should jump into the back. And oh, that feels quite comfortable. I quite like that. but a very high window line. So, um if I close the door, um hi there. Yeah, that that that’s quite narrow, but I suppose it’s not Toyota C um H CHR, is it? The hybrid one. They look terrible in the back, but uh decent amount of space for sure. Um loads of knee room. Uh I’m okay for head room. I’ve got a good few inches of head clearance as well. Um, I haven’t got an armrest. Uh, annoyingly, it is actually a full five-seater back here. There’s another couple of USB type-C’s down here and some fresh air vents, document storage, door pockets. But, uh, it does feel a little claustrophobic here. Come and have a look. Yeah, it’s all just a bit dark. If I um actually close the door and the window. Apparently, I can’t close the window anymore. Cars. Yeah. So, no armrest. It’s um you don’t get material for the fifth seat, but it is actually a seat. But, uh yeah, again, it’s all I’m just surrounded by headliner and that that tiny little window. But, uh it’s certainly comfortable. Um yeah, it’s quite pleasant back here. Let’s check the boot out. One of the things my dad complains about very slightly is, but to open the boot, you have to press this tiny button, which can be fun to find in the dark. There’s nowhere to get your hand under and feel where the switch should be. But, uh, it’s a electronic release only. You have to manually open it yourself. I know. It’s terrible, isn’t it? Awful. But, uh, there we go. Decent amount of boot space. Uh, there’s me bag taking up some space. Nice and deep. And, uh, oh, there’s even more space underneath for your bags. I always forget to take my bags into the supermarket. And, uh, your pump and all that sort of goodness. No spare wheel, obviously. Don’t know if you can spec one, but uh I’m quite liking the pretty rear lights. We’ll have to see those in action in a bit. And uh I will say another mild annoyance already is the uh reversing camera lenses under here. And it really got some filth caked onto it. So I’ I’ve cleaned that off. So that should now be good. But yeah, it’s just nice to be able to get your fingers in. I think it looks like someone has tried several times. A few scratches there. Tiny rear wow wiper. We’ll check that out. But uh yeah, we should probably get that window closed. Go down the road. Okay, then we shall start with the important business of the windscreen wiper test. Oh, I like the um on blade washing system. Good overlap. No triangle of doom. That makes it different to earlier mans, but we’re terrible for the triangle of doom. We even get a little uh dribble wipe, but there is no dribble. I’ve left my window open for good reason. That’s to show you the noise it makes as we set off. So, foot on the brake, press the stalk down, straight into drive, and [Music] it makes this theatrical noise as we drive down the road. I can’t say I’m awfully keen on it, to be honest. I like it when you get to about 50 mph and it shuts up. I appreciate we need to warn people of our presence, but uh yeah, it’s just I find it irritating, much like the indicator noise. Uh there’s no one pedal mode that I can find. It’s possible there is one. I just don’t know how to use it. That is very, very possible indeed. But uh that’s the strongest level of regen. And we’re almost coming to a stop on a slight gradient, but uh there we go. Speed builds up. That annoying noise goes away. And uh we go down the road. Does seem to be quite a bit of um road noise. I don’t know if the big wheels are part of the problem there. Um I don’t love it, I must admit. And because the car has been freshly whacked, the wiper has left a line right down the screen in front of my face. I don’t know if you can see that or not, but it’s certainly very pleasant to drive. But, uh, then it should be because Renault after Nissan kind of has the longest experience of family electric cars that you can actually buy. The Renault Zoey going on sale back in 2011, I think, uh, which was around the same time as the Nissan Leaf. I assume there’s some um common ground between the two, although I’m sure the two companies would deny it. Uh because obviously Renault and Nissan were um in a partnership at the time, but uh certainly Renault leapt on the electric bandwagon with some enthusiasm. First with the Zoey, then the little Twizzy um but obviously now with just regular cars that are electric. Uh so like I say there is a regular man which looks quite similar but uh I do believe this is on the um Nissan platform although everything kind of platform shares these days anyway doesn’t it? So yeah quite a lot of road noise and we’ll probably see a bit of wind noises we get going down the road as well. Not touching the brake pedal at all. That’s just regen. Keep an eye on that Tesco van. And uh 60 mph means I can just bury it. And yeah, that’s exciting. Gets to 60 uh very excitedly. Uh some testers have managed sub 7 seconds on the naugh to 60 and I know I know there is no need for it to accelerate like that, but it is good fun. The only problem I would say is the uh digital speedo can be a bit slow to keep up, I find. So, you’re already doing a naughty speed by the time it gets around to actually telling you. Again, it just seems Is it just me? There just seems a little bit too much ambient noise. The sound seems to really work its way around the structure. Um, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh, but uh I’m sure the Hyundai Insta was a little quieter than this. And of course, you can always just put the radio on if you can work out how to use it. Uh, currently tuned into BBC Radio 2. Good. Otherwise, it’s just um about as fussree as you’d kind of expect. It does seem to go well. Let’s see if we can find some um more entertaining roads to actually test the handling on. My dad’s had it for a year. He hasn’t really got any grumbles about it at all. Uh, so that’s encouraging. He previously had the MG ZS. I’m afraid I didn’t get to film that one. Uh, which had a very unpleasant ride on the roads round by us. It was um, surprisingly bouncy. I have to say this feels pretty composed. So, actually had to break there just to boost the um, slowing down. Oh, yes. This is a twistier road. steering is very very direct, but uh not in a twitchy way. Just means you generally don’t have to turn the wheel very much. So, it’s using the electric assistance to do all the hard work for you. In terms of economy, uh my dad reckons he’s getting 3.9 miles per kilowatt. Uh which is uh or miles per kilowatt hour rather, which is not bad going for around here. It’s very hilly and uh he does find that will improve with just local use. Although he can’t charge to 100% because driving from his house into town is straight down a very steep hill. So if you’re maxed out, you don’t get the regen. Oh, some proper Devon roads here. So, um it’s quite um a rough surface, but uh it stills feels pretty comfortable from where I’m sitting. just a little firm which I think is probably um in fact there’s a bit of float but there’s a bit of a crash as well. I’m kind of thinking the crash is due to the low profile tires but uh it’s certainly um pretty comfortable on these roads. Oh, there’s mud all over the road. My dad’s going to be so angry he had the car cleaned today. feel suspiciously like we’re getting to the end of the road, but no, it reckons the road goes this way. Oh, this is really bad. But, uh, yeah, it isn’t too bad at all in here. This is almost Green Lane then. Who else is doing this on their new car reviews? Or is it a used car? It’s done uh 12,000 miles, I think. [Music] Yeah, we’re averaging at the moment because I keep hooning it everywhere, 3.7 miles per kilowatt hour, which is still not bad going. In terms of um economy for electric cars, anything below four is starting to get a little thirsty. Uh if it’s um over 4 miles per kilowatt hour, then it’s quite economical. If you can hit the dizzy heights of five, which I managed once in the Hyundai Insta, mostly cuz I got stuck behind lorries for a 30 mile drive, uh, you’re doing very well indeed. This is terrible. This road service is completely broken up, but it’s still quite comfortable in here. Thank you, pedestrians. [Music] Yeah, it just takes up drive really nicely. You do get so used so quickly to the um Oh, this road is terrible. What a good test for suspension. Yeah. So, you get used to it so quickly, the electric driving uh sensation, that instant torque whenever you want it. And you don’t necessarily want all of it. You don’t want to be foot flat to the floor. It’s just that little bit of shove just to get you up to speed nicely. It’s um yeah, it’s very addictive and just the overall smoothness of the driving experience. Uh that also very very strongly appeals. I kid you not. We are just about to drive into Fairy Cross. Got to hand it to the Deonians. They’re very good at coming up with very silly names. hear quite a bit of motor noise actually. And I found that with the um Hyundai Ionic 5 that uh the motor made itself known in a way the little Insta didn’t so much. But uh I guess that’s just differences between how the EVs work. I think some people like a bit of motor noise, so at least there’s something to indicate that you’re accelerating down the road. But oh yeah, it certainly feels very competent going around the bends. Like I say, you don’t have to steer at all. I can’t say there’s actually um loads of feedback coming through the wheel, but nonetheless, it will go exactly where I point it. What a pleasant drive. Well, that was really rather a pleasant drive in the Renault Man E Tech. I can see why my dad likes it so much. It’s certainly very comfortable and uh jolly good fun if you want to push on a bit. Um plenty of shove and uh very direct steering. Uh that is um something I did not quite expect, but yeah, it’s not a bad looking thing either. So practical electric vehicle uh it certainly seems to be. And uh I bet you could comfortably get into the fours in terms of economy with a slightly more gentle foot. Um me apparently not. I’m enjoying myself way too much. But I hope you found that interesting. Plenty more electric vehicle content always floating about on the channel. But it doesn’t mean we’ve lost our love for petrol. We like both and that is allowed. And uh yeah, I shall see you in a future video. Farewell. Oopsie. Almost forgot the rear wiper test. Yeah, I suppose actually it wipes quite a lot of the rear window, but also leaves quite a lot unwiped. And uh I don’t love the rear view uh out the back. It is quite limited. But uh thankfully the uh door mirrors are chunk. The window’s dirty.
This EV is so French that the noise it makes was composed by Jean-Michel Jarre. I hope he wasn’t responsible for the horse-trot indicator noise.
We test electric cars in ways different to most. A special focus on windscreen wipers and then we drive it down a road that felt like a greenlane. Proper testing!
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