Keen follower of automotive affairs as I fancy myself to be, I’ve found the recent torrent of amorphously mid-market, varyingly electrified and quite same-ish Renault SUV crossovers frankly bewildering. I would challenge even the most dedicated Renaultiste to tell an Austral from a Rafale from an Arkana from a Megane E-Tech from a Scenic E-Tech from a Symbioz – the last of which I had the pleasure of covering a few hundred miles in.
And when I say pleasure, I mean I actually liked it, much against my prejudices. It’s a Renault, a brand I’ve never warmed to; it’s yet another SUV crossover thing; and it’s a hybrid, and thus a rather futile compromise that in most circumstances gives you the worst of both a traditional fossil-fuelled motor and a proper electric car propelled purely by battery power.
