Renault Scenic long-term test

In theory, the latest Renault Scenic electric SUV looks extremely compelling, offering a long range at a tempting price. We're living with one to see how good it is in practice...

Updated19 December 2024

The car Renault Scenic Long Range Iconic Run by Allan Muir, managing editor

Why we’re running it To find out whether the Scenic is a better family-sized electric SUV than the likes of the Tesla Model Y

Needs to Deliver all the comfort and practicality expected of a family SUV, while being as easy to live with as an electric vehicle with such a long official range should be

Mileage 2886 List price £45,495 Target Price £41,804 Price as tested £46,795 Test range 278 miles Official range 369 miles

19 December 2024 – One size fits all

One of the benefits of electric vehicles is that they’re often more space-efficient than combustion-engined equivalents, mainly because they don’t have to accommodate sizeable engines and gearboxes. Which means they don’t have to be juggernauts on the outside in order to provide generous room inside for occupants and luggage.

The Renault Scenic is a prime example of this. At 4470mm long and 1571mm high, it’s a bit smaller than conventional family SUVs such as the Kia Sportage, and significantly more so than an Audi Q5 or a Volvo XC60. The advantages are obvious to me every time I drive my Scenic, especially around town; it’s an ideal size for untroubled parking, manoeuvring through congested city streets and making tight turns, aided by quick, well-weighted steering. There’s nothing intimidating about threading it along a winding country road, either.

When you’re sitting inside it, though, you’d never guess it was any smaller than those rival family SUVs; there’s acres of space front and rear, and the boot is a good size. Extra-long rear doors provide easy access to the rear seats, too.

A slight downside of the fact that the Scenic isn’t as tall as an XC60 is that I can’t raise the driver’s seat quite as high as I might like; if I do, I end up bumping my head on the relatively low roof when I get in or out. So I have to drop the seat down a bit – not all the way down, mind you – and accept a slightly less commanding view of the road ahead.

Really, that’s no hardship, because visibility almost all the way around the Scenic is quite superb. Those long rear side windows make for clear views over my shoulder at acute-angled junctions and when changing lanes on the motorway – in stark contrast to my previous Mazda MX-30 R-EV, which was terrible in exactly those situations.

There’s one direction in which visibility isn’t so great, though, and that’s directly behind the car, because the rear head restraints block half of the rear window. The outer pair are large enough that they obscure the window behind them from top to bottom, and the centre head restraint takes up half of the window’s height. True, that still leaves a small chunk of glass that I can see through in the rear-view mirror, but it’s a shame the head restraints can’t be pushed down when not in use.

A potential workaround is that my Scenic comes with a ‘virtual’ central mirror; it can be flicked over to a camera feed to give an unobstructed view behind. It’s mainly intended to help when you’ve got lanky passengers in the back seats, or a boot full of tall objects, but it succeeds in erasing the head restraints too.

Great, you might think; just leave the mirror in this mode all the time. There’s just one problem: the virtual mirror makes me feel nauseous literally within seconds of switching over to it on the move. My poor brain can't cope with the continuous movement in my peripheral vision, or the dramatic change in focal length required to look directly at the mirror. I’ve had similar issues when driving cars with virtual door mirrors. All I can say is, I hope these camera-based mirrors don’t become standard fitment on all cars.

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