Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Wed 17 Apr 2024 21:34
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - martin.mc

I had been considering downsizing to a smaller automatic car for a while. After seeing the new generation Clio at my local Renault dealer, I arranged a test drive of the E-tech version and decided to get one. My verdict, Love it. Quick off the mark, pulls away in electric mode, engine fires up seamlessly when needed, nice smooth auto box that 'creeps' at low speed just like a torque convertor transmission. There's plenty of power for overtaking tractors and horse boxes, with good fuel economy too. I am getting around 55mpg driving in a semi rural area doing mainly short journeys. Renault say that the maximum distance the car will travel in EV mode is under 2 miles. The 1.2kW traction battery is charged when decelerating or braking, there is no facility to plug into the mains. In spite of this, nearly half of the first 1000 miles has been covered in EV mode. The data log reads

Total distance 1004.6 miles

Distance travelled in electric mode 470.1 miles

Average fuel consumption 54.7mpg

Average electric consumption 8.9miles/ kWh

Total recuperated energy 48.6kWh

Average speed 21.9 mph

Without electrical assistance, a 1.6 petrol automatic like this would probably return around 30mpg on a good day (purely a guess).

Edited by martin.mc on 17/04/2024 at 21:38

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 17 Apr 2024 22:00
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - FiestaOwner

Glad you like it.

That's some very impressive figures. Really surprised that it travels so far in electric mode (I've no experience of Hybrids).

Thanks for reporting back. It's always good to hear a review from a real buyer.

Edited by FiestaOwner on 17/04/2024 at 22:01

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 08:07
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - SLO76
I’m not overly impressed by those figures. We had a much larger Honda CRV 1.6 diesel for a number of years and it was better on fuel. My ancient Toyota Avensis 1.8 petrol estate can touch 50mpg on longer runs and average mid 40’s in general use. Almost any modern petrol supermini can do 50mpg plus. Hybrids were rare before government legislation forced them onto us because they don’t really save a huge amount of fuel in real life driving, not enough to return the additional investment over a normal petrol model unless you’re a taxi driver or similar.

We were looking at Renault Scenic’s with the 1.3 turbocharged petrol motor and they apparently could do 50mpg easily enough without all the extra cost and weight of hybrid running gear.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice looking car but with Renault you’re best going for the least complexity possible.

Edited by SLO76 on 18/04/2024 at 08:08

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 19:42
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - FiestaOwner
I’m not overly impressed by those figures. We had a much larger Honda CRV 1.6 diesel for a number of years and it was better on fuel. My ancient Toyota Avensis 1.8 petrol estate can touch 50mpg on longer runs and average mid 40’s in general use. Almost any modern petrol supermini can do 50mpg plus. Hybrids were rare before government legislation forced them onto us because they don’t really save a huge amount of fuel in real life driving, not enough to return the additional investment over a normal petrol model unless you’re a taxi driver or similar. We were looking at Renault Scenic’s with the 1.3 turbocharged petrol motor and they apparently could do 50mpg easily enough without all the extra cost and weight of hybrid running gear. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice looking car but with Renault you’re best going for the least complexity possible.

SLO, you don't seem to have taken account that the OP's car seems to have been used for short local runs. Indeed, to get so much time running on battery, it must surely be doing a lot of town work to get all that regen braking!

I just don't accept that a petrol Scenic is going to get anywhere near 50mpg (or even 40mpg) on short local runs.

Just checked my fuel computer (Ibiza 1.0 TSi). Over the last 2455 miles, it averaged 49.3mpg Average speed 29mph. This car's main use is for my 27 mile each way commute, (with some short local running about in between). I wouldn't get anything like this on only local runs.

When I ran a hired Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost TC auto (in 2020) it averaged 10 mpg less than the Ibiza (which I put down to it being an auto. The op's car is an auto hybrid).

To me, the OP's figures sound impressive.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 08:36
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - John F

Interesting figures, but a v. important one is missing. On-the-road cost?

Can't help but compare with our own more upmarket small automatic car of similar size and power, albeit with two more doors, a Peugeot 2008 1.2 EAT6 130 Allure Premium. On the road price exactly £17,000 four and a half years ago. Avr mpg 42.7 over the last 5,600 mainly small single carriageway miles at a considerably faster avr 33mph. But it can do over 50mpg on long distance M-ways at 70mph, possibly more if creeping along at an arguably antisocial 60mph. Fuel economy is not really important if doing not much more than 5000 miles a year.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 09:47
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - Andrew-T

Fuel economy is not really important if doing not much more than 5000 miles a year.

John, that depends whether you are economising on fuel or cash ! In these days of CO2 it should be fuel, surely ?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 20:12
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - Metropolis.
Depends if you believe in man-made climate change or not but for most, I doubt that amongst mpg, number of seats, how it looks, 0-60, optional extras, the C02 figures are even looked at apart from for tax reasons.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 09:19
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - mcb100
I’m a big fan of the Clio - looks great, inside and out and probably the best B segment hatch out there.

I’d be happy with 55mpg from a 145PS hatch which runs zero emissions for half the time.

For the life of me I can’t see how a Peugeot 2008 is more upmarket…
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 09:41
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - Adampr
I’m a big fan of the Clio - looks great, inside and out and probably the best B segment hatch out there. I’d be happy with 55mpg from a 145PS hatch which runs zero emissions for half the time. For the life of me I can’t see how a Peugeot 2008 is more upmarket…

I'm intrigued by the extra doors. Dual.cat flaps?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 09:49
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - badbusdriver
I’m a big fan of the Clio - looks great, inside and out and probably the best B segment hatch out there. I’d be happy with 55mpg from a 145PS hatch which runs zero emissions for half the time. For the life of me I can’t see how a Peugeot 2008 is more upmarket…

I'm intrigued by the extra doors. Dual.cat flaps?

I'm also curious about John's 2008 having 7 doors?!

Interesting figures, but a v. important one is missing. On-the-road cost?

However in response to this, the current 2008 starts off at £24,180, the Clio E Tech starts off at £21,495

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 17:42
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - John F
…I'm intrigued by the extra doors. Dual.cat flaps?

I'm also curious about John's 2008 having 7 doors?!

Sorry - thought it was a two door, googled a pic to check, only appeared to have one door handle (per side;-)

Interesting figures, but a v. important one is missing. On-the-road cost?

However in response to this, the current 2008 starts off at £24,180, the Clio E Tech starts off at £21,495

Yes, but that's list price, isn't it? I thought no-one paid that - we certainly didn't.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 18:20
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - badbusdriver

Interesting figures, but a v. important one is missing. On-the-road cost?

However in response to this, the current 2008 starts off at £24,180, the Clio E Tech starts off at £21,495

Yes, but that's list price, isn't it? I thought no-one paid that - we certainly didn't.

You got a big discount off your 2008 because it was the old shape and the new one was imminent. Surely you don't believe you'd have got the same discount off the new shape?.

Cheapest brand new Clio E Tech on Autotrader is £19,395, that is £2,100 less than the cheapest brand new 2008 (which has 40bhp less, won't run on electric power and has a manual gearbox)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 18 Apr 2024 21:26
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - martin.mc

Thank you for your comments. The last automatic car I had was a Volvo 740 estate. 2.3 petrol engine, 3 speed box with overdrive and torque convertor lock up over about 50mph. Lovely to drive but shocking fuel economy (low 20s). I wanted a modern automatic that was nice to drive, not a gas guzzler and reasonably quick on acceleration. The Clio ticks all the boxes though my wife calls it a Boy Racer car (it's the Alpine version in black). Love driving in EV mode though a pure EV would be no good to me as can't charge at home.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 19 Apr 2024 10:42
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - John F

Yes, but that's list price, isn't it? I thought no-one paid that - we certainly didn't.

You got a big discount off your 2008 because it was the old shape and the new one was imminent. Surely you don't believe you'd have got the same discount off the new shape?.

Of course not. (Although really upmarket cars with waiting lists have commanded even higher than list price for immediate resale)

Cheapest brand new Clio E Tech on Autotrader is £19,395, that is £2,100 less than the cheapest brand new 2008 (which has 40bhp less, won't run on electric power and has a manual gearbox)

Yep - upmarket quality costs, even if it has only one engine.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 19 Apr 2024 16:20
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - badbusdriver

Yes, but that's list price, isn't it? I thought no-one paid that - we certainly didn't.

You got a big discount off your 2008 because it was the old shape and the new one was imminent. Surely you don't believe you'd have got the same discount off the new shape?.

Of course not.

So the conclusion here is that there was no point whatsoever in comparing what you paid for your runout 2008 with what the OP paid for his (newly facelifted) Clio E-Tech?

Cheapest brand new Clio E Tech on Autotrader is £19,395, that is £2,100 less than the cheapest brand new 2008 (which has 40bhp less, won't run on electric power and has a manual gearbox)

Yep - upmarket quality costs, even if it has only one engine.

Quite so. Peugeot's upmarket quality see's them a whole 2 places ahead of Renault in What Car's 2023 reliability survey (but 7 places behind Citroen..........)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 21 Apr 2024 09:43
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - John F

Yep - upmarket quality costs, even if it has only one engine.

Quite so. Peugeot's upmarket quality see's them a whole 2 places ahead of Renault in What Car's 2023 reliability survey (but 7 places behind Citroen......

Can't see the point of reliability surveys of cars 'aged up to five years old' with unknown and possibly minimal mileage. Unless the mileage is well above average that's barely run in as far as I'm concerned. What would be more relevant is a survey of repair costs above and beyond basic servicing to keep them going for 100,000 miles. That's a good age to assess build quality, furniture and fittings durability, and mechanical reliability.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 21 Apr 2024 13:56
Renault Clio E-tech hybrid - Impressions after the first 1000 miles - madf

Yep - upmarket quality costs, even if it has only one engine.

Quite so. Peugeot's upmarket quality see's them a whole 2 places ahead of Renault in What Car's 2023 reliability survey (but 7 places behind Citroen......

Can't see the point of reliability surveys of cars 'aged up to five years old' with unknown and possibly minimal mileage. Unless the mileage is well above average that's barely run in as far as I'm concerned. What would be more relevant is a survey of repair costs above and beyond basic servicing to keep them going for 100,000 miles. That's a good age to assess build quality, furniture and fittings durability, and mechanical reliability.

That means that reliability surveys would only consist of cars over 5 years old and likely replaced by a newer model.

About as much use as a used nappy.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link