W e changed everything but the name” is the slogan Renault has devised for its all-new, all-electric Scenic model , and, for better and for worse, that’s a fairly accurate appraisal. The old Scenic, originally the Megane Scenic from the 1990s, was an ovoid people carrier or “multipurpose vehicle”. This new Scenic is a rather larger rectilinear affair, styled more as an SUV , as is the fashion (a little confusingly, Renault still also make a Megane, now electric , built on the same platform as the Scenic but a bit shorter).
The old Scenics had a range of petrol and, yes, diesel engines (quaintly sooty as that may feel now), and the latest Scenic has a choice of long-range or short-range battery packs. The old Scenic was, well, a little frangible and prone to corrosion; and we shall have to see how this model copes with the ravages of time. First impressions suggest it should be more robust than its forebears.
So, yes, a break with the past, and the Scenic takes its place alongside a blizzard of new Renault models occupying roughly the same sort of space in the marketplace, some fully electric, others hybrid, mostly with unfamiliar names – Arkana , Austral , Rafale and, soon, Symbioz . I think I preferred it when Renaults went by numbers – 4, 5, 12, 16, 20..
. less of a feat of memory. Actually, there are few variants of the Scenic itself; the cheaper ones get a 60kWh battery married to a 168bhp, and the more expensive versions a much bigger 87kWh pack and a 215bhp m.