Renault 4 E-Tech long-term test: Living with Renault's more sensible EV

Report 1: We welcome the other electric Renault

Our Renault 4 has arrived, and has gotten off to a shaky start...

Date: 22 April 2026 | Current mileage: 311 | Claimed economy: four miles per kWh | Actual economy: 3.7 miles per kWh

Because I have no qualms about being a massive cliché, I took up surfing the moment I moved to the south coast. Actually, it's worse than that – I started lessons before we even completed on our new house. And bought a surfboard.

That surfboard needs to be transported about 30 minutes south to the beach every now and then, which in the BMW 520i Touring I was running up until recently wasn't much of an issue, although it did need to poke into the front bit of the cabin slightly. For the Renault 4 E-Tech replacing the BMW, I was expecting it to be easier, despite the car being considerably shorter. 

That's because the Renault 4 E-Tech comes with a clever passenger seat which folds fully forward. Renault even made a big deal about this by commissioning a branded surfboard, which was shown in lots of press and marketing material fitting neatly over the folded passenger seat. However, there's a problem – UK-bound cars don't have that feature. 

Renault didn't fancy engineering this for right-hand drive cars, so I've had to resort to good old-fashioned roof bars. I still don't have a surfboard carrier yet, but I've had a trial fitting by simply sitting my eight-foot foam surfboard on top, and I have to say, it does look excellent. 

The Renault 4 E-Tech doesn't, however, look anywhere near as cool as the Renault 5 E-Tech. In fact, it feels like the model is overshadowed by its smaller sibling. I'm curious as to whether it'll do enough to stand out in the range over the next few months. It's slightly longer and a fair bit taller than the E-Tech, which means more practicality, but it's still a small car. A family holiday in it might be a bit of a squeeze, I'm thinking. 

The first thing it had to do, though, was a bit less taxing – take my wife and me to Heathrow Airport and back with minimal luggage. That's a 190-mile round trip, so I thought even after the usual rough deduction you have to make on the official range figure to get something realistic (the Renault 4 E-Tech has a WLTP-rated range figure of 247 miles), I thought we'd be fine. But no. 

Admittedly, it was a very cold morning when we left, and I hadn't left the car plugged in and set to precondition, which would have been easy enough given that we've had an Andersen charge point fitted ahead of the car's arrival (more on that soon). But even so, I was taken aback by how quickly the range figure dropped. We left with about 220 miles indicated, which after around 95 miles plummeted to 75 remaining. 

We'd averaged three miles per kWh, a long way off the promised four miles per kWh. Conditions were much warmer for the return leg, with efficiency hitting four miles per kWh, as it happens, which seems good going considering motorway speeds aren't great for EVs. The efficiency increase meant we probably could have scraped the return journey, but it seemed prudent to stop for a top-up at Fleet Services.

I only left it on long enough for me to go over the footbridge and back to collect a Taco Bell, but even so, at about 85p per kWh, that was enough to cost me a tenner. A tenner I'd have saved by just being a bit more organised and pre-conditioning the car. Lesson learned.