Of course the battery is heavier, 400 kilograms (for the 60 kWh pack) but the whole car comes in at 1,620 kilograms, which is only fractionally heavier than a combustion engined VW Golf. That is considerably lighter than a combustion engine with cooling systems, clutch, gearbox and transmission. The electric motor, inverter, charger hardware, heat pump and transmission gears weigh 145 kilograms. They have really worked on reducing weight, particularly on the drive train. The wheels are pushed right out to the far corners of the vehicle giving much greater space for the human occupants, and what because clear when talking to the engineers who developed the Megane was, they applied a great deal of knowledge they have gleaned from making over 400,000 Renault Zoes. Just like the Renault Zoe, this is built from the ground up as an electric car and it makes a huge difference. You can’t buy the hybrid, plug in hybrid or diesel version of the Megane, because Renault aren’t making any.
The big difference will be the interior space which is, because it’s only built as an electric car, much bigger than the original petrol model.Īnd this is the first bit of genuinely good news I head about this car. So the Megane E Tech is a bit bigger than the original Megane which was launched in 1995, but only by a handful of centimetres. It really is a disease that cars have got SO big and heavy, and I don’t mean just electric cars.Īll cars, and I have to say this particular disease emerged in the USA originally but it has now spread globally and is showing no signs of diminishing.Īnd the cars that are obscenely bloated are always the most popular. I was there to experience the all new Megane E-Tech, and as I walked past the car on display in the courtyard of the very pleasant hotel we all stayed in, I was impressed.īasically it’s not huge, like so many new cars are now. So I got on an airplane for the first time in over 2 years and flew to Malaga airport in the south of Spain, courtesy of Renault. Just occasionally we get the opportunity to see and test drive a new car on a specific date and if Jack is already booked, I step in. I used to do all that on my own, and it’s important to remind readers, I did it quite badly. The hybrids, the plug in hybrids and the very very rare pure electric ones.ġ2 years later and I admit things have developed a bit.įor a start Jack Scarlett does most of the car reviews for the channel, and he’s unspeakably brilliant and everyone loves him.Īnd we have an incredible crew who rig up the cameras, check the sound and then edit the resulting footage. The car was probably a hybrid as I was interested in the new breed of vehicles emerging. I had no idea what I was doing, obviously I was trying to make a video about the new car, for my YouTube channel which, at the time, sounded a bit naff and amateur. (Okay, I don’t wear a cravat but the rest is a bit close to home, did I ever tell you about the time I had dinner with Jeremy Irons)īack then I arrived at a posh hotel in somewhere like Geneva and met a small crowd of automotive journalists who all had proper jobs, had deadlines and could bash out 1,200 words on the new Mazda without blinking. I’m an old luvvie, a semi retired comedy actor who should be wearing a cravat while boring everyone with loud theatrical anecdotes. When I first went on a press launch for a new car many years ago, I was definitely out of place, out of my depth and out of my comfort zone.
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