Renault Megane E-Tech

FINAL REPORT A few minor quibbles aside, the pure-electric Megane is a solid choice for family-car buyers

- Steve Walker

WE were really our with the Renault Megane but, just like that, it's gone. The French manufacturer executed one of the most thorough reinventions we've seen of any well known mainstream model line in turning its petrol and diesel family hatchback into a purely electric car with clear SUV overtones. From where I've been sitting for the past six months, that bold move has paid off.

There might still be doubts circulating around EV adoption in the UK, fuelled in no small part by the cost and charging infrastructure, but the Megane E-Tech is a fine ambassador for the tech. It isn't without its faults, but the only really significant one for me was the amount of space on offer.

You must be very careful when criticising cars for their carrying capacity and passenger accommodation, because different owners have very different requirements in this regard. But for me and my family, a couple of inches of extra rear legroom and a more practical boot would have pushed the Megane close to family-car perfection.

Let me elaborate. When the idea of a wholesale transition to electric cars was mooted years ago, one of the big supposed benefits of EV tech was its potential to revolutionise car packaging. The idea was that losing the engine and putting the battery under the floor would create the freedom to design cars of a completely different shape that translated far more of the available footprint into useful interior space for passengers and luggage.

This obviously reckoned without the UK car-buying public's desire not to drive cars that look like glazed horseboxes. But that doesn't change the fact that the Megane, in its switch to electric, broadly maintained the traditional two-box family hatchback shape and gained little in terms of capacity.