Renault Megane ETech Techno Long Term Review

How does Renault Mégane electric autonomy behave in cold climates?

Everyone loves a huge football game. There's been nothing but England v France lately so it's been in my diary. Not because I like watching football. No. But the big games give me a chance to drive on empty roads.

With the Megane, it was my first long-distance test. I was worried. In the rest of Europe, the Megane comes standard with a new smart heat pump (all heat pumps are smart, it's even better) and some extra pipes to transfer heat between the cabin, engine, electronics and battery.

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Cool things that are too hot and heat things that are too cold without wasting battery power or dumping them in the ocean.

British cars are getting rid of the heat pump. Therefore, the indoor heater consumes a lot of battery power. I don't mind it because I mostly rely on the butt warmers, heated steering wheel and the warm clothes I wear when I go to the car. In addition, you can remotely heat the cabin before departure through the app, and when the car is connected to the network, it will not drain the battery or affect the flight range, although of course you will pay for electricity.

Batteries also love heat. Megan cannot heat the main battery. Few cars can do that. But a cold battery is significantly less able to release energy, so it actually uses the energy to warm itself up. However, the engineers told me that the heavy battery cools down slowly and takes a few days to drop to a low temperature at night. Good, because my experiment took place in London during the pre-Christmas cold and zero degrees.

However, my extrapolated range on that cold England v France World Cup night was 140 miles or 2.7 million kWh. (It chewed up 75 percent in 102 miles.) It was a mix of city, freeway, and country roads.

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In 6-8 degree weather I get about 180 miles, even in normal driving, which is almost three quarters of the way with the cruise control set to the speed of 72 mph, giving me a tolerable odometer error. And the same engineers predict that will improve by at least another 20 miles in warmer temperatures. Renault actually has a very honest range computer on their website.

Another thing that sometimes affects energy consumption, like all electric vehicles and all ICE vehicles, is driving on very wet roads. Think of the effort of four tires constantly releasing a cloud of spray. It's not easy to measure - there's no ISO standard for "wetness" and it probably depends on whether the road is gritty or smooth, but I'd say it could be 5 to 10 percent more.

It's nobody's fault. But someone must have made the final decision to downsize the UK-sold Megane's efficiency kit. Of course, this is only relevant for a few weeks a year, but it is harmful. Marketers say that "modern electric cars can be used without compromise", but most people will say that a beanie is a compromise. Fortunately, I still enjoy driving the Megane and haven't had to do 200 miles yet.

But I will soon. It's 240 miles on the highway to your destination in Belgium, then a bit of a scramble there and then home, so you'll need to top up along the way. There are plenty of DC options in this region so I'm not too worried.