Renault Austral review

Sometimes it’s refreshing to throw away all the clothes you don’t wear, or donate whatever superfluous tat you may have accumulated to a charity shop. Indeed, the launch of the Renault Austral marked a similar clear-out for its maker.

The Austral is a replacement for the Renault Kadjar and not only features a new name, but also ditches traditional pure petrol engines in favour of a hybrid set-up.

Yes, hybrid. While the Austral is badged E-Tech, it's not a fully electric car like the Renault Megane E-Tech. Instead, it combines a petrol engine with an electric motor in a similar way to rival family SUVs such as the Honda ZR-V and the Kia Sportage.

There isn't a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of the Austral to compete with the Sportage PHEV though. Apparently, studies by Renault suggested that few customers would plug it in often enough to get the efficiency benefits PHEVs can deliver when the battery is charged.

So, does a lack of engine choice make the Austral less attractive than its various family SUV rivals? Well, we'll be answering that very question in this review.

We'll rate the Austral against the ZR-V and Sportage, plus other alternatives, including the Hyundai Tucson, the Kia Niro, the Nissan Qashqai and the Toyota C-HR. And we'll not only look at how it drives, but also how practical it is, how efficient it is and more.

Finally, we'll reveal which of the three trims on offer – Techno, Techno Esprit Alpine and Iconic Esprit Alpine – makes most sense.

Once you've looked through all of the detail and worked out which car is right for you, we can help you buy it for the lowest price if you search the discounts available through our free What Car? New Car Buying service. It lists lots of great new family SUV deals.

A look at the way it accelerates highlights that the Renault Austral sits in the middle of the hybrid family SUV landscape when it comes to performance.

The petrol and electric power combination delivers a total output of 197bhp for an official 0-62mph time of 8.4 seconds (we managed 8.8 at our private test track). That's a bit slower than the Honda ZR-V, the Kia Sportage and the Nissan Qashqai hybrids, but enough to show a clean pair of heels to the equivalent Kia Niro and the 1.8-litre version of the Toyota C-HR.

The Austral will always set off from stationary under electric power and can (in theory) get up to motorway speeds without using the petrol engine at all.

In reality, whether it does or not depends on the amount of charge in the battery and if you are gentle enough with the accelerator pedal. However, the Austral can run on electric power for longer than most conventional hybrids because its 1.7kWh battery – while tiny by electric car standards – is bigger than the batteries in direct rivals, including the 1.49kWh unit in the Sportage and 1.05kWh battery in the ZR-V.

The Austral’s turbocharged 1.2-litre engine packs sufficient punch, too, but if you need a sudden burst of pace (to overtake, for example) there’s a noticeable pause before the car gains speed. That’s because the hybrid system requires a moment to calculate the best form of propulsion, so some planning ahead on your part is sometimes required. The Sportage hybrid and ZR-V are both far more immediate in such situations.

The Austral’s steering is responsive enough, plus, there are three levels of weighting available. You can select from Low, Medium and High, although the Low setting is best avoided because it's so light and vague that you can lose track of where the front wheels are pointing.

More positively, the top-spec Iconic Esprit Alpine model comes with a rear-wheel steering system, called 4Control by Renault, which drastically reduces the turning circle to 10.1m (even the much smaller Renault Clio hatchback needs 10.4m).

It doesn't make this tall car fun to hurl into corners, though. The Austral leans far more than a Cupra Formentor or Seat Ateca for example. When you're driving spiritedly, the 4Control rear-wheel steering and the quick steering make the car feels nervous and hard to place on the road. The 4Control option does make parking and urban driving easier though.

Unfortunately, the Austral is far from relaxing in any environment – at least in the Iconic Esprit Alpine form that we tried – because it thumps harshly over bumps and almost constantly jostles occupants around. It remains to be seen if the entry-level Techno model, which features a different rear suspension setup and smaller wheels (19in rather than 20in) is significantly more comfortable.

In terms of road noise, the Austral is on a par with the Sportage. You get a bit of wind noise around the windscreen pillars, along with some road noise generated by the 20in wheels, but it's far quieter than the noisy ZR-V. And while there is a bit of suspension clonk at low speeds – as there is in the Seat Ateca and the Skoda Karoq – engine noise is subdued. The unit is far quieter than it is in the Renault Arkana and the Renault Captur.

The power delivery can be a little jerky when the engine fires up to help boost acceleration (feeling a little like a rough gear shift), but progress is smooth in electric mode. The brake pedal response lacks a bit of initial bite, but it's still easy to stop without any jerkiness – something that's not always the case in hybrids that try to blend regenerative braking (aka 'regen') with the conventional ones.

Speaking of which, the driver can adjust the strength of the regen effect by using steering wheel mounted paddles, helping to recover energy when slowing down.

Driving overview

Strengths Great fuel economy; spends long periods on electric power; relatively hushed

Weaknesses Inconsistent power delivery; hyperactive steering; brittle ride

The driver’s seat in the Renault Austral has plenty of adjustment, including for lumbar support, while mid-spec Techno Esprit Alpine models and above come with electric adjustment and a massage function to boost long-distance comfort (with Lumbar, Relaxing and Dynamic modes). 

While the driving position is slightly more commanding than in a Honda ZR-V or Kia Niro, it’s not quite as elevated as those in the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage. The forward view out of the Austral is still great though, thanks to a low dashboard. The windscreen pillars are chunky, but they’re not too obstructive in terms of angle and positioning. And while the rear window is rather small, all models come with all-round parking sensors and a camera to compensate.

Adaptive LED headlights that allow you to use high beams without dazzling other road users are also standard, which is a big help when driving on unlit roads at night.

Meanwhile, inside, the dashboard is dominated by large screens: a 12.3in digital driver's display and a 12.0in portrait-oriented touchscreen through which you operate the infotainment system.

The driver's display can be partially obstructed by the steering wheel if it’s set low, but it’s otherwise clear, with crisp graphics and a good range of information. It can even show a full-width sat-nav map if you wish. You also get a head-up display, which projects the car's speed and other info on to the windscreen in front of you.

As for the infotainment screen, this is made easier to use by the presence of a moveable hand rest in front of it. Plus, there's an effective Google-based voice control system that you can use to adjust the air-con, set the sat-nav, change the driving mode and so on. 

Some of the icons on the infotainment system can be hard to read and hit when you're driving, but there are proper physical controls at the bottom for climate functions. Their knurled toggles are less distracting to use than fiddling with the screen – and also look rather smart.

Higher-spec models come with plenty of soft-touch finishes and a greater range of materials on the surfaces at eye level, with cheaper plastics hidden lower down. That said, while it all looks appealing, the ZR-V, Tucson and Sportage both feel more robust.

Interior overview

Strengths Good driving position; impressive infotainment system

Weaknesses Interior quality is not up there with the class best

Up front, the Renault Austral gives you plenty of head, leg and shoulder room for six-foot-plus occupants. There are also cubbies dotted around to hide things in, including a sunglasses holder in the roof that doubles as a convex rear passenger mirror for keeping an eye on back-seat passengers.

The door pockets are big enough to take decent-sized bottles of water, and there's a sizeable cupholder below the infotainment screen. The only trouble is, if you put a drinks can in that cupholder, you can't slide the hand rest forwards enough to get full access to the storage area underneath it.

The back seats slide back and forth (a rare feature among hybrid family SUVs) so you can give rear-seat passengers more leg room than in the Kia Sportage. You can also recline the back seats. Head and shoulder room isn’t as generous as in the Sportage, though, and three adults in the back will find it a squeeze.

With the back seats slid back as far as they'll go, the Austral's 430 litre boot capacity gives it the edge over the Honda ZR-V and is about the same as the Kia Niro's. Slide them forward and this increases to 555 litres, edging ahead of the Nissan Qashqai (504 litres) and the Seat Ateca (510 litres). However, the Hyundai Tucson and the Sportage have much more space than all of those: we managed to fit eight suitcases in Tucson and Sportage and just six in the Austral. 

You get some handy backrest release handles in the entrance to the boot to help you fold down the rear seats when loading longer loads. Unfortunately, they fold in a 60/40 split (rather than a more versatile 40/20/40 arrangement) and there’s an annoying step in the floor that you’ll need to lift items over. There’s no adjustable boot floor, but you do get a handy underfloor storage area.

Practicality overview

Strengths Rear bench slides and reclines; decent storage space

Weaknesses Rear bench only folds in 60/40 split; boot space is limited

The Renault Austral is priced broadly in line with key rivals, whether you go for the cheapest version or the most expensive. What's more, resale values are predicted to be slightly higher than for rival family SUVs. This is surprising given how poorly the Kadjar (its immediate predecessor) holds its value.

Still, even if they do turn out to be weaker than expected, PCP finance costs, are currently competitive. And the Austral is cheaper to run than rivals, with its 105-110g/km CO2 output equating to a lower benefit-in-kind company car tax rate than other hybrid family SUVs offer.

The official fuel economy of 60.1mpg beats most rivals, too, including the Honda ZR-V and the Nissan Qashqai e-Power; only the slightly smaller Kia Niro hybrid pips it. On our fuel efficiency test route, we saw a figure of 49.4mpg; some way down on the official figure claimed by Renault, but still better than the 45.2mpg we got from the ZR-V and the 43.8mpg from the Sportage. 

The safety testing experts at Euro NCAP gave the Austral a full five-star rating when it was tested in 2022, with it closely behind the Qashqai when you look more closely at the scores. All versions come with lane-keeping assist, front and rear automatic emergency braking (AEB), traffic-sign recognition and a system that alerts the driver if their attention has wandered from the road.

In terms of reliability, though, Renault came 18th out of 32 car makers featured in our 2022 What Car? Reliability Survey – way below Toyota, Hyundai and Kia. The standard Renault warranty of five years or 100,000 miles is one of the longest out there, but you can get seven and 10 years respectively from Kia and Toyota.

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Costs overview

Strengths Plenty of standard equipment; decent predicted resale values; low CO2 output

Weaknesses Renault had a lacklustre performance in our latest reliability survey; no plug-in hybrid option for company car buyers