Renault Rafale Review 2024

While the majority of attention is being focused on its reinterpretations of its classic models, albeit now in electric car form, Renault is still keeping things contemporary by broadening its offering in the growing luxury SUV sector. Find out how good its flagship is with our comprehensive Renault Rafale review.

On sale since spring 2024, the Renault Rafale is an SUV coupe, albeit one with plenty of room for a family within its rakish shape. From launch, the sole power choice was the E-Tech 200PS self-charging hybrid driving the front wheels. Six months on, it’s been joined with an E-Tech 300PS stablemate, with four-wheel drive and a plug-in hybrid arrangement.

It’s been a while since the company offered a model as upmarket as the Rafale, with both the unusual Renault Vel Satis and Avantime disappearing from UK showrooms 20 years ago. As a hybrid SUV it’s very much capturing the zeitgeist of car buyers’ demands — but the market is also full of excellent alternatives.

Chief among them are two models that Renault has cited as setting benchmarks against which it developed the Rafale against. Given its popularity, the Audi Q3 Sportback seems a sensible choice, while rather less obvious is the BMW X2.

Given the Audi’s underpinnings are shared with other models from the colossal Volkswagen Group, the closely related — and recently restyled — Cupra Formentor will likely be a thorn in the Rafale’s side.

Somewhat bullishly, the company also cites the likes of the Mazda CX-60 and the ageing Volvo XC60 as further alternatives, despite them lacking the Rafale’s coupe roofline.

From a styling perspective, the Renault Rafale certainly stands out in this crowd. It’s named after the Caudron-Renault Rafale — a 1934 racing aeroplane hatched as a result of Louis Renault’s obsession with speed and flying. There aren’t any wings on offer here, but the car’s undeniably sharp suit is complemented by a deal of undercarriage input from Renault’s sports-oriented sibling Alpine.

Inside, the Rafale strikes a sensible balance between feeling luxurious and sporty yet practical enough to cope with the rigours of family life. The dashboard itself is dominated by screens but there’s a useful number of physical buttons and controls around to ensure the main touchscreen isn’t used for everything.

The driving position gives no cause for complaint and there’s plenty of room front and rear for passengers of a grander stature. Boot space is also impressive, seats up or down — pity then that there’s a step between the boot floor and the level of the folded seat backs when you wish to accommodate longer loads.

Costing just north of £38,000 for the 200PS full hybrid and around £45,500 for the 300PS 4WD plug-in hybrid, the Renault Rafale isn’t cheap when considered in isolation. Factor-in the very generous levels of standard equipment, the space on offer and how much its competitors cost and the Rafale looks decent value for money.

In the context of ride and handling, then, the technical wizardry under scrutiny is four-wheel steering, four-wheel drive and the intelligent self-adjusting suspension system fitted to the top-of-the-heap Renault Rafale 300PS plug-in Atelier Alpine version we drove.

Four-wheel steering comes courtesy of a rear axle that can turn up to five degrees at low speeds to improve agility and reduce the turning circle to a Renault Clio-matching 10.4 metres, or follow the direction of the front tyres at speeds over 31mph for improved stability in fast manoeuvres.

Four-wheel drive, using a second electric motor mounted astern, prioritises power delivery to the front at speeds under about 45mph and shifts to rear wheel priority thereafter.

The new, self-adjusting smart suspension system has a camera at the top of the windscreen for predictive control. This system adjusts damping continuously, based on vehicle speed and driver input, adapting to any obstacles on the road ahead, such as speed bumps, or a damaged surface. 

Around town, the four-wheel steering’s something of a treat in terms of that tight turning circle and general improvement in agility. It’s harder to pick up on any benefit from the trick suspension, though — the low speed ride feels pretty firm, with lumps and bumps very much making themselves felt on board and the car doesn’t appear to tackle larger speed bumps with any particular alacrity, taking its time to settle the car down again.

Allied to the impressively refined and quiet powertrain, things smooth out considerably out of town, however and progress feels largely civilised and easy going. But if you push the car hard enough to tax all the clever electronics, it becomes harder to adjudicate on their efficacy. 

Body roll, though reasonably well controlled, is still very much in evidence, even when you dial through the drive modes to the more dynamic and sporting settings. The four-wheel steering makes light work of fairly twisty conditions, and you can hustle along at a fair old lick with minimal effort.

The brake system blends the car’s regenerative braking system with its conventional brakes well and smoothly. No complaints here.

Everything does exactly what it says on the tin and all the systems appear to work together in remarkable harmony, adding perceptible gouts of agility and no little poise to the oomph and refinement provided by the powertrain. So, unless you really floor the throttle, at which point the engine becomes somewhat vocal, admirable rush with hush is very much the order of the day.

But, nonetheless, this isn’t an especially engaging drive — more amply powered mile-muncher than guinea-a-minute entertainment.

The combustion engine component of all Renault Rafale models is the firm’s familiar three-cylinder 1.2-litre petrol. To that the various — and complicated — electrical systems are connected for hybridisation.

For the 200PS full hybrid, that consists of a front-mounted electric motor, plus a second one integral to the automatic transmission. This consists of four gears for the engine and two for the electric motors — six in total. The battery’s capacity is 1.7kWh.

Maximum torque is rated at 205Nm helping achieve a 0-62mph acceleration time of 8.9 seconds. Top speed is electronically limited to 111mph on all Rafales.

For the 300PS 4WD plug-in hybrid, another electric motor is added to the back to propel the rear wheels and the battery’s capacity is uprated to 22kW for a greater degree of electric-only driving.

With torque increased to 230Nm, together with the additional traction on offer, the 0-62mph dash is trimmed to 6.4 seconds.

Though somewhat complicated compared with most PHEV powertrains, we found this one to be seamlessly smooth and, largely, very quiet, with the engine only making itself heard when you floor the throttle.

The Renault Rafale was awarded a maximum five-star Euro NCAP rating when it was tested in 2022, scoring 87% for adult occupant safety, 83% for child occupant safety and 87% for safety assist technologies. A 69% score for the vulnerable road users category was a mite less satisfactory.

This car groans under the weight of some 32 driving aids (ADAS) including ISA or Intelligent Speed Assist, a function that reads the current speed limit and warns the driver if the vehicle is travelling too fast.

The European GSR2 (General Safety Regulation) requires some driving aids (ADAS) to be activated by default every time the car is started. A button to the left of the steering wheel — My Safety Switch — lets drivers activate their preferred settings for five ADAS at the same time. The customised settings available from the multimedia screen include whether to activate the function, to what level, to allow sound alerts, and so on.

With Active Driver Assist, a level 2 ADAS, the car is able to scan the road ahead. Active Driver Assist combines Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Centring Assist and geolocation data from specific maps. Integrated with Active Driver Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition with Overspeed Warning (OSP) can also be used on its own. The driver can choose to combine it with the speed limiter or cruise control.

Other ADAS systems for driving include Cruise control and speed limiter, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with Stop and Go, Distance Warning (DW), 360° 3D Around View camera (AVM) and Hill Start Assist (HSA).

Additional safety systems include Active Emergency Braking System (AEBS) and Rear AEB with system junction function, Blind Spot Warning (BSW), Traffic Sign Recognition with Overspeed Warning, Forward and rear detection with Emergency Lane Keeping Assist, Lane Keeping Assist (LKA), Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Lane Change Warning (LCW), Driver Attention Alert (DAA) and Trailer Stability Assist (TSA).

For parking manoeuvres the Renault Rafale features front, rear and side parking sensors, Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA), Hands-free parking, Bird's eye view and Occupant Safe Exit Alert (OSE).

Whichever version of the Renault Rafale you choose, the maximum braked towing capacity is 1500kg, so forget about hauling enormous caravans with it.

The Renault Rafale is 4710mm long, 2085mm wide and 1613mm tall. It’s a deceptively large car and, at 2738mm, has one of the longest wheelbases in its segment.

The front seats are comfortable and the feeling of snugness afforded by their large lateral support wings is further enhanced by the driver-focused environment created by a central multimedia touchscreen angled towards the driver, putting even its far corners within easy reach. The steering wheel is squared off for no particular reason but remains ergonomically satisfactory to use.

Practicality is greatly enhanced by a row of physical buttons which handle the heating and ventilation, while a button beside the steering wheel allows you to store your preferred settings for all those nanny driving assistants.

There’s generous storage in the front of the Renault Rafale’s cabin, including door cubbies that’ll each hold a large bottle of water. There are two sections in the centre console — one with two cupholders, the other with a deep well for odds and ends. You can only access one at a time because the other will be covered by the sliding armrest, which doubles as a wireless phone charging pad. 

As with the front, there’s plenty of leg room in the rear and more than enough head room for those who’re six-foot plus. However, there’s not much space for feet under the front seats. More positively, the central transmission tunnel may be wide but it’s very low and won’t leave your middle-seat passenger uncomfortably trying to find space for their feet.

The rear seat back is split 40:20:40. The centre section folds down as a large armrest which houses fold-out cupholders and natty phone or tablet stands to guarantee less bedlam from behind on the longer journey. This format also allows for the transport of long items with both outer seats still occupied.

Sadly, there's a step from the boot floor to the folded backrest so it’s not particularly easy to slide in that stuffed alligator. And there are no levers in the boot to fold down the seats from the back of the car.

The loadspace offers a useful 539 litres with the rear seats in place and there’s a small storage area under the boot floor to store the PHEV’s charging cable, although it will need to be wound up and packed away with some care.

Despite the rakish rear window angle loadspace increases to a whopping 1826 litres with the rear seats collapsed. Renault may have benchmarked the Q3 but this has space more comparable to that of the Audi Q5 Sportback.

Forward visibility is fine but the view over the driver’s shoulder is reduced by wide rear pillars, while the very shallow rear window really limits your view straight out of the back. Mercifully, parking is made easier by standard-fit front and rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera. Top-spec versions feature an upgraded 360-degree camera and a system that’ll park the car for you.

On board, the Renault Rafale’s crisp, sporty cabin design is dark. Slick, but unremittingly black. Shame that a little colour hasn’t crept into seat upholstery options over even dashboard finishes. Not that the wafer-thin quarried slate trim panel isn’t pretty classy.

It all feels admirably well screwed together and lashings of leather and Alcantara further heighten levels of perceived and tactile quality, whilst the liberal use of gloss black plastic may polarise opinion somewhat. 

Entirely wholesome, on the other hand, is plenty of physical switchgear, such as the air-conditioning controls. Though the quality of plastics used for the myriad steering column-mounted stalks and the haptic buttons on the wheel itself could use a gentle upmarket hike.

Accessing the Renault Rafale’s infotainment system is via a 12.3-inch drivers instrument screen, a large 12-inch, portrait-oriented central touchscreen angled towards the driver and a head-up display.

That central touchscreen is angled towards the driver, putting even the far corners within easy reach. The infotainment uses a Google-powered operating system and includes Google Maps for navigation. The screen definition is crisp, its interfaces logically arranged and the system’s pretty intuitive to use on the move.

Users can browse the system in the same way as on a smartphone. As well as being fully customisable, the interface is compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for wired and wireless smartphone connectivity.

A row of proper switchgear below takes care of the air-conditioning, and there’s a button beside the steering wheel on which you can store your preferred settings for all those nanny driving assistants. You’ll have to spend a few minutes in a layby to set them up, but only once — thereafter it’s just the jab of a button.

Stick with the non-plug-in hybrid Renault Rafale E-Tech 200PS and there’s a choice of three trim levels, with prices stretching from a smidge over £38,000 to approaching £45,000. Only two trim levels are available for the plug-in Renault Rafale E-Tech 300PS 4WD, ranging from around £45,700 for the least expensive with the range-topper adding a further £4000.

Standard equipment levels are high across the board so be sure not to spend more than you need to for the level of kit you’ll be satisfied with.

So what of the Rafale’s competitors for added context? Audi doesn’t offer a self-charging or plug-in hybrid Q3 Sportback, so the £36,600 price of the 150PS version is artificially low. The least pricey comparable 190PS edition costs almost £41,000. The larger Audi Q5 Sportback is still around in PHEV guise from almost £47,000.

There are no HEV- or PHEV-format BMW X2s, either, only mild hybrid and fully electric. The former starts with a 170PS version for which BMW charges over £41,500. Cupra’s Formentor is more on the Rafale’s wavelength, though — two plug-in hybrids are offered with the 204PS versions starting at £41,500 and the 272PS alternative from £44,800.

Less coupe-like than the Renault, Mazda’s CX-60 PHEV, with 327PS starts at £45,500 while the Volvo XC60 in plug-in hybrid guise costs from a rather astonishing £56,000, although that is with 350PS of grunt on-hand.

Stick with the Renault Rafale E-Tech 200PS full hybrid and regardless of trim level the official WLTP Combined economy figure is 60.1mpg, with CO2 emissions ranging from 105-107g/km.

Pick the punchier Rafale E-Tech 300PS 4WD plug-in hybrid and it’s a slightly more complicated picture. With the battery fully charged, the Combined cycle fuel-sipping figure is 564.9mpg for the Techno Esprit Alpine version, dropping to 403.5mpg for the flagship Atelier Alpine model — it’s trick suspension and bigger wheels has quite the impact.

In normal hybrid mode with, those numbers for the PHEV drop to 48.7mpg and 44.8mpg, respectively, while CO2 emissions are quoted at 12g/km and 15g/km. Electric driving range is 65 miles for the cheaper Rafale PHEV and 59 miles for the range-topper.

The PHEV’s 22kWh battery can fully charged in 9 hrs 05 min with a 2.3 kW domestic socket and 2 hrs 55 min with a 7.4 kW wallbox charger. It tops itself up on the move through regenerative braking and retains enough charge to ensure the car always starts and moves off in EV mode.

Although the Renault Rafale plug-in commands a substantial premium in outright terms, its low BIK tax rating of only 8% will make it far more appealing to fleet buyers than the standard hybrid, which loiters in the 26% bracket.

There are four trim levels on offer for the Renault Rafale — Techno, Techno Esprit Alpine, Iconic Esprit Alpine and Atelier Alpine. The first three are available with the 200PS full hybrid, while the 300PS 4WD plug-in hybrid is limited to the second and fourth of those.

Key standard equipment for the Renault Rafale Techno includes the 12.0-inch OpenR Link multimedia system with wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and in-built Google operating system, a 12.3-inch driver’s display screen, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, dual-zone climate control, 48-colour ambient lighting, automatic LED exterior lights with auto high beam, 20-inch Sonic alloy wheels, darkened rear privacy glass, a 60:40 split rear seat and keyless entry.

Progress up to the Renault Rafale Techno Esprit Alpine for goodies such as the 4Control four-wheel steering system, a 9.3-inch head-up display, LED matrix headlights, Alcantara faux suede seat upholstery, electrically adjustable and heated front seats, 40:20:40 split rear seats, an electric tailgate, electrically heated steering wheel and windscreen and 20-inch Castellet alloy wheels.

Adding to those in the Renault Rafale Iconic Esprit Alpine are the 12-speaker Harmon Kardon audio system, a 360-degree parking camera package with automatic handsfree parking, puddle lights beneath the door mirror casings and the Solarbay opacifying panoramic glazed roof.

With all of those in the bag, the Renault Rafale Atelier Alpine also boasts adjustable active suspension as part of the 4Control Advance system that’s been tuned by Alpine’s engineering team, 21-inch Chicane alloy wheels and a hands-free electric tailgate opening function.

Additional factory fitted options are few and far between limited to paint choices, including a two-tone variation for all barring the entry-level Techno and a temporary spare wheel, which is only available on the 200PS non-plug-in hybrids.