Renault Megane E-Tech test hit by power-sapping surprises

Late last year I decided to drive 322 km from the suburb of Turin where I live to Bologna, Italy, for a dealer event.

Having a Renault Megane E-Tech press car at my disposal, I figured the trip was an ideal opportunity to make a true test of an electric model with a 60 kilowatt-hour battery that promised a range of 450 km based on WLTP testing.

Even if I factored in the expected 25 percent reduction in real-life range compared with the overly generous WLTP number, I should have had a range of 337 km, meaning I wouldn't have to recharge.

With a 100 percent charge done at home, the Megane's Google-based navigation system said I would arrive in Bologna with 6 percent left on the battery.

My plan was altered because at about 100 km (about 62 miles) into the trip -- at the 115 kph maximum speed allowed by the car's energy-saving Eco mode -- there was an accident on the highway.

I had to exit the highway, resulting in a 45 km detour, which would have been a minor issue with a combustion car. But with a battery-powered car I could not complete the trip without recharging.

That takes us to the next adventure. The navigation system found just one fast charger within 100 km, an Enel X location that even with the help of Google was difficult to locate because of the poor illumination in the area, which was at a large shopping mall in Fidenza.

The good news is that the fast-charging 50-kilowatt-hour point was available. In 37 minutes, the Megane was at 80 percent charge, which got me to Bologna with 25 percent of remaining battery. With no public charging near my hotel, the next morning I spent another 40 minutes at a 50-kWh BeCharge station to get me back to 80 percent.

I knew wouldn't make it home without a charge stop, so decided to stop again in Fidenza. Luckily, the 50-kWh charging point was available. I charged to 80 percent.

Another surprise came at about 160 km from home. Because there was a slight incline on this stretch of highway, my range was being depleted faster.

On the way to Bologna, it was a like a tailwind, the opposite was true on the ride back. Therefore, I needed a second charge stop. Once again I found an off-highway 50-kWh Enel X charge point that was difficult to locate because it was on the side of a large Stellantis dealership.

After 40 minutes the Megane was back to 80 percent, allowing me to get home.

On paper, with no stops, I should have covered both of these 322 km trips in 2 hours and 58 minutes.

In reality, because I had to recharge before leaving Bologna the trip back to Turin took 5 hours and 15 minutes. Had I had a 100 percent charge at the start of the return trip, it would have taken 4 hours and 34 minutes (and an additional 21 km of driving to reach two off-highway charging stations).

While the Megane E-Tech was comfortable to driving long distances, even in Eco mode its actual energy consumption was about 19 kWh/100 km on the highway. That is about 315 km of true range.

One question you might ask if: Why did the navigation system tell me I could make the first trip with no stops? The answer is relatively simple. Because I previously used the car only for urban and suburban trips, with energy consumption of about 15 kWh/100 km, the system used that energy level to calculate my trip, which was completely inaccurate.

Before I started the return trip the system calculated my range based on highway consumption rather than urban consumption, alerting me that I would need two stops to complete the journey.

The end result was that for the roundtrip I averaged 18.6 kWh/ 100 km.

Overall, I drove the Megane E-Tech for 991 km during my test, averaging 16.7 kWh/100 km of energy consumption, of which 0.8 kWh/100 km was used by the heating system. Therefore, the actual range for nearly 1,000 km was of 359 km per charge.