Long-term report: Can the Renault Scenic convince an EV newbie?

The time has finally come — I’ve embraced an electric car as a long-termer. Meet the Renault Scenic, the latest addition to our fleet.

Renault is accelerating fast into the electric age. With the retro Renault 4 & 5 about to hit the road and the all-new Twingo following close behind, the brand’s commitment to electrification is clear. Funky design and fully electric powertrains are now at the heart of Renault’s future — and the Scenic is a big part of that story.

For me, though, running an EV has never seemed especially practical. As Head of Video, I’m often called on to criss-cross the country at short notice — usually with a car full of camera gear and a schedule that doesn’t allow much time to sit at a charger. Add in the fact that I don’t yet have a home charging point, and things get even trickier. My nearest charger is a couple of miles down the road, next to a coffee shop. Handy, yes — I can catch up on emails while I wait — but the combined cost of electricity, coffee and cake is starting to show in my monthly budget. Not to mention the effect on my expanding waistline.

Then there’s space. When I started out in the motoring world back in the early 2000s, the Scenic was the archetypal MPV — a proper family workhorse built for tip runs, school runs and summer holidays. This latest version feels quite different. It’s more of a large family hatchback than a true MPV. There’s plenty of room, but not the cavernous practicality of the old models. Even the dog isn’t entirely happy; he has to heave himself over a high boot lip, only to find a deep load bay with little view out of the rear window.

According to the spec panel we get with every car delivered to us, the Scenic we have is the EV87, the 87 referring to the kWh. On paper, it should return around 381 miles from a single charge, but so far the reality is quite different.

My first long run in the Scenic was from Southport in the North West to Leamington Spa for a filming session with Wheeler Dealers legend Mike Brewer — roughly 140 miles each way. The outbound leg used just over 50% of the charge, so I topped up en route, boosting it to around 60%. After a day’s filming, I headed back north and rolled onto my driveway with just 5% battery remaining. After a 15-hour day, the last thing I wanted to do was hunt down a charger.

The next morning, after a quick dog walk, I returned to find the Scenic had dropped to 2% overnight. So this is what they mean by range anxiety. Thankfully, there’s a rapid charger by a nearby supermarket, though by the time I got there, it had dipped again to 1%. Still, it made for the perfect opportunity to measure charge time and cost from near-empty to full using a public charger.

Plugged in at 10:30am, I settled into Costa with a caramel latte and a slice of millionaire’s shortbread — £7.49 if you’re counting. The charger’s QR code feature is handy, letting you track charge progress and cost remotely. After about 90 minutes, the battery hit 98%, showing another 20 minutes to reach full. I decided to call it quits.

Total cost for the session: £60.50. Roughly on par with a tank of petrol, though the Scenic’s real-world range seems considerably less than you’d get from an equivalent combustion car — and, of course, filling up with petrol takes a fraction of the time. Maybe the cold weather played a part, maybe my driving style, over the duration of the test, though we’ll see if this figure changes.

That’s not the only long-distance run this month. I’ve also taken it to the North East on family duties, which meant a run up the M6, and a stop off at my favourite service station – Tebay. However, when I stopped to charge, the heavens opened, and I don’t mean a gentle downpour. We’re talking apocalyptic conditions. Now, unlike normal combustion engine cars, when you stop to fill up, the pump is located under a large canopy which protects you from the elements. However, all the chargers that I’ve been to thus far have all been fully exposed.

So that’s my gripes, and to be fair, a lot of those could be applied to general EV ownership. I’m just getting it off my chest as a first-time EV owner. The Scenic itself though, is a really well put together piece of kit. It’s certainly come a long way from the Scenics of old. This version is the esprit Alpine spec, so it comes well equipped with a large touch-screen infotainment centre which controls everything from your navigation and car settings to DAB radio and phone. What’s nice though, is that the heating and ventilation controls have been kept separate, so you don’t have to swipe through screens to change the temperature while on the move.

The Scenic also features a Solarbay opacifying panoramic sunroof, which is identical to that of the Rafale, where it frosts at the touch of a button, rather than the need to slide back a screen, which impacts headroom. The seats are comfortable and supportive and fully adjustable and I’m pleased to report that they’re heated too, which is much needed on these colder mornings, plus the heated steering wheel too.

It’s still early days with the Scenic, and I’m yet to find my rhythm with EV life. There are positives, certainly — it’s quiet, refined and packed with tech — but also niggles. Chief among them: there’s only one cupholder up front. Just one. There’s easily room for a second, and its absence feels like an odd oversight in an otherwise well-thought-out cabin.

The learning curve continues — but if nothing else, it’s going to be an interesting few months finding out what living with Renault’s reinvented Scenic is really like.