Renault Scenic E-Tech Review

​Practicality and boot space 

The Scenic is a very useful family car that’s got masses of leg- and headroom in the back seats plus plenty of cubbies and comforts around the cabin. There’s even a rear centre armrest that has two phone charging sockets and phone stands. The rear seat backs split and fold flat in a 40/20/40 fashion, so you can fold just the centre section down to carry your curtain rail back from Ikea, while also having four passengers comfortably on board. 

But those rear seats don’t slide or recline, nor are they removable, which is the sort of useful versatility that you might hope for of a car wearing a model badge that was famed for its utilitarian values. More than that, while the 545-litre boot is rivalling the Skoda Enyaq for claimed luggage volume, it’s a much shorter boot than the Skoda’s, but is incredibly deep. Basically, it’s roomy but is a far less useful shape than the long, flat boot floor than you get in the Skoda (which is still the most practical electric family SUV you can buy in this price range). You can add a variable boot floor for £150 as a dealer-fit option, which we’d highly recommend – especially if you’ve got dogs or regularly lug heavy items into the boot.

Interior and design 

The Scenic’s interior finish is rather plush – especially if you go for the esprit Alpine model, with its flashes of blue trim, sports seats and Alcantara upholstery, or the top-spec Iconic that gets a pale, textured upholstery and huge panoramic glass roof for a really bright and airy finish. There are quite a few gloss plastics that are prone to getting fingerprint-smeary, but the Scenic really is classy inside – even in base techno trim. 

Dashboard 

The Scenic gets a smart, user-friendly dashboard that includes physical buttons for the climate control, and also to activate your chosen safety assist settings. It is a bit annoying that the indicator stalk, gear selector and also the audio controls (which are on a stubby stalk protruding from the lower section of the steering column) are all clustered around the right hand side of the steering wheel, as it’s a bit easy to hit the indicator rather than the gear selector. It’d be good if that gear selector would respond a bit quicker, too, as sometimes it feels like it waits a second or two too long before it engages drive or reverse. 

Technology and equipment 

You can’t miss the big, 12-inch portrait touchscreen that dominates the whole fascia in the Scenic. In-built Google software including Google Maps is a great bonus, and there are also over-the-air software updates, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so that you can use your phone’s apps on the car’s screen. 

Equipment is very good; even the cheapest techno model gets 19-inch alloy wheels, a heat pump for more efficient winter running, reversing camera, metallic paint, automatic LED headlights, keyless entry and heated front seats. This would be our pick of the range, as esprit Alpine adds mostly style upgrades (but doesn’t get any performance or suspension improvements, as fans of the Alpine performance brand might have been hoping for). Top-spec Iconic gets 20-inch wheels, a panoramic glass roof and Harman Kardon sound system, all of which is very lovely but does come at quite a substantial price jump over our favoured Scenic techno model. 

Safety 

Every Renault Scenic gets blind spot warning, adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking and lane-keep assist. It’s also got a great system where you can save your favoured driver assist settings – for instance, you may want to have lane-keep assist off but the speed limit warning and driver tiredness alert on – and then activate with a quick double-tap of a button near the steering wheel. It’s a really convenient way to give the driver easy control of all the car’s driver assist systems.

The Renault Scenic E-Tech achieved a five star Euro NCAP crash safety award.  

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