Renault Megane 2025 review: E-Tech Techno EV60 long-term | Part 1

French brands seem to be in a bit of a spot in Australia right now but the new electric Megane might be the beginning of a new era for Renault.

Once quirky European alternatives to more mainstream options like Volkswagen, brands like Peugeot and Renault have experienced various levels of acceptance in Australia.

Never quite cracking massive volumes, there have been a few notable hits which stay in the minds of enthusiasts, particularly cars like the Renault Megane and Clio, alongside a long list of short-lived attempts at more mainstream stardom.

Now, with more than ten new brands taking a shot at the Australian market in the next 12 months, it seems like time might have run out for French brands to make their mark.

Citroen is dead, and Peugeot looks to be going ever more niche, with its importer focusing on premium variants with high-end drivetrains and correspondingly high prices.

What will Renault do? Still trying to find an audience for its new-generation combustion cars, like the Captur and Arkana, the Megane E-Tech could be the reset the brand needs.

I’m spending three months with one to find out if it’s the right car for the job.

Is the Renault Megane E-Tech good value?

Renault’s local importer has chosen to go with just one variant for the E-Tech, and it’s a good-un. Priced from $54,990 before on-roads (and state-based EV discounts) the E-Tech Techno EV60 is surprisingly keenly positioned against what might be its closest rival right now, the Volvo EX30, which starts from $59,990, and the Cupra Born, which kicks off from $59,990.

Sure it’s priced above the MG4 (from $37,990) which is the only real budget option in this size-bracket (the BYD Dolphin and GWM Ora are a bit smaller), but the Renault is also better equipped for reasons we’ll explore in a moment.

The single E-Tech spec comes with a 60kWh battery pack, good for a WLTP-certified 454km range in combined driving conditions and it has a single 160kW/320Nm electric motor on the front axle.

This is interesting because for claimed efficiency reasons, all of its rivals are rear-wheel drive. For the impact this makes on the drive and efficiency, you’ll have to read on.

Inside, the E-Tech is well equipped, too, featuring an unconventional dash layout with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and smaller 9.0-inch multimedia touchscreen. There’s a wireless charger on a platform to go with the wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. There’s keyless entry and push-start, dual-zone climate control, ambient interior lighting, as well as heated front seats with a heated steering wheel.

Outside there are enormous 20-inch alloy wheels which makes this car look proportionally interesting. It looks smaller than it is, but then the wheels take up such a huge percentage of its side profile.

Some downsides when it comes to spec includes the fact the local importer cheaped out on the AC inverter, meaning you can only charge up at 7.4kW on slow-charging hardware. Because of this it will take roughly six-and-a-half hours to charge from 10 - 100 per cent as opposed to a four-and-a-half hour charge time you'd get at the desirable 11kW.

On top of that, the Megane E-Tech is available with online connectivity overseas, which isn't yet available in Australia. The brand's representatives told us at handover it's likely these features will come with a mid-cycle facelift at a later date.

While I think this new Megane sticks to the current Renault formula a bit too much, I must say it is an interesting car to look at up close. One thing I’m really looking forward to is the smaller Renault 5 which is expected to head to Australia next year. I’ve seen these cars overseas and they look sharp, a fresh take on the retro-futuristic aesthetic seemingly sweeping the industry.

What is the Megane E-Tech like on the inside?

I think its rather tame exterior design undersells what feels like an entirely new proposition from the Renault brand.

You see, the week I picked up this car, I had it at the same time as an Arkana - what is likely to be the last of the ‘old’ crop of Renault cars.

The difference was night and day. Almost everything was new in the Megane. The seats feel fresh, there’s a new steering wheel, sharper, faster screens, better software, different material choices in the doors.

Gone are the hard plastics and bland expansive dash materials of its predecessors. Gone is the awkward steering wheel and old-school button and toggle hardware. Gone is the big bezel tablet-style touchscreen. Everything down to build quality is an improvement over the Arkana.

Even the smallest details are different. Vent designs have special attention paid to them, there’s a completely new set of buttons and dials, and there’s even sturdy Nissan-sourced switchgear for the indicator stalks. Funnily enough the only familiar piece of Renault hardware from predecessors is the chunky multimedia control stalk hidden behind the steering wheel. Something has to be familiar, I suppose.

The overall feel of the cabin is also just distinct. Some combination of the new screens and materials and switchgear feels influenced from outside of Europe. As one passenger I took for a drive quite rightly put it: It feels like a Kia. Today, that’s a very good thing. 

All this points to the ultimate feeling gleaned from the Megane E-Tech: This car is a reset for the brand. Renault is taking this once-in-a-generation opportunity in its switch to electrification to start over and reset the rules for what its interiors look and feel like.

I can’t think of a brand that needs it more.

What is the Megane E-Tech like to drive?

According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the Megane E-Tech is classed as a 'small SUV'. But really, it's a hatchback.

I cannot begin to describe how nice it is to drive an actual hatchback. In a sea of competent but uninspiring electric small SUVs, the E-Tech stands out for being low to the ground, lightweight, and super quick on the steering.

It’s also like driving a combustion hot hatch in more ways than one. The regenerative braking, for example, is quite different from my previous long-term tester, the Volvo XC40 (now EX40).

While the electric XC40 leans hard into its electric nature with a strong single-pedal drive, the Megane doesn’t have a single-pedal mode, instead feeling its best in the standard regen mode, relying more heavily on blended braking via the pedal.

Obviously, this feels more like a combustion vehicle to drive, but it does have the unfortunate byproduct of having a slightly awkward moment when coming to a full halt where the pads suddenly grab, making for occasional jolting moments at the lights.

You get used to it. Thankfully the rest of the drive experience is pretty much blemish free. The ride is impressive considering this hatch is riding on enormous 20-inch wheels. This is no doubt helped along by the sensibly-sized battery pack. Unlike some EVs which have massive 70kWh+ battery packs and tend to either feel ungainly in the corners or ride hard to compensate, the Megane feels like a solid balance of ride quality and handling.

From behind the wheel this results almost in the feeling the batteries aren’t there, and as a result this hatch actually feels like the spritely, reactive car it should, more like a Golf GTI than even the Cupra Born, which is intended essentially to be a VW Group electric take on the GTI formula.

I don’t even mind that it’s front-wheel drive. Sure it doesn’t have the potential silly moments of slide you can eke out of some of its rivals, but the handling is so good it feels like the Megane nameplate always has - front-drive, sure, but sharp and tidy before understeer bites.

The throttle is also nicely controlled which combines with a good choice of tyre to keep the front wheels from spinning (at least not too much) when you hop on the accelerator from the get-go.

It’s not ultra fast, with 160kW/300Nm on tap, but because it’s relatively light for an EV it certainly lands firmly in warm hatch territory, if not tapping into hot hatch land.

The biggest detractor from the drive experience generally is almost lack of a rear window. A tiny letterbox view is available out the rear, with the brand providing a digital rear vision mirror to help with this. Either way it’s not fun to see out of, with the dull mirror not providing much of an aspect out the rear, and switching it to digital makes you lose all sense of depth perception.

Is the Megane E-Tech energy efficient?

Surprisingly so. In my first month with the car covering roughly 700km, our E-Tech landed at 13.6kWh/100km. 

For context, this is an impressive number. The best I may have ever pulled was from a Hyundai Kona Electric at 11kWh/100km, but this Renault is getting close.

To be fair here, I spent almost my entire first month driving in largely urban conditions (ideal for an EV thanks to the amount of regen it can benefit from), so it will be interesting to see how it does when a bit more freeway gets mixed in later in our test.

When it comes to charging, the stand-out so far is the small battery and fast DC capability makes for truly ultra-rapid charging times. I took my car from 15 - 50 per cent in about 15 minutes (the time it took me to grab a snack from a nearby store) from a 125kW charger.

My car is showing about 400km of range on a max charge, but one thing which has become obvious is the estimated range remaining adjusts frequently on the fly, like the Polestar 2 which showed disturbingly low ranges prior to a major software update that changed the range calculation method. More investigation is needed on this one. Check back next month, where I’ll also investigate cabin practicality, packaging, and more.

Acquired: October 2024

Distance travelled this month: 707km

Odometer: 3528km

Average energy consumption this month: 13.6kWh/100km