Renault 4 long-term test: report 2

The car Renault 4 Techno+ Run by Allan Muir, managing editor

Why we’re running it To see whether this keenly priced small electric SUV can prove to be better value than more expensive alternatives and offer more than just charming retro looks

Needs to Be comfortable and easy to live with, nippy around town, reasonably practical and efficient enough to deliver a respectable range for occasional longer journeys

Mileage 1205 List price £25,945 (with £3750 grant) Best price £25,945 Price as tested £26,695 Official range 245 miles Test range 177 miles 

10 May 2026 – Back of beyond (city limits)

The majority of the trips I’ve done in my Renault 4 (R4) in its first few weeks in my custody have been around south-west London – an environment for which it is proving well suited. It’s nippy, comfortable and reasonably easy to drive, with the strong ‘one pedal’ setting for its energy recovery system allowing me to control my speed, crawl down multi-storey car park ramps and come to a halt at junctions without me having to press the brake pedal. 

That’s a good thing, as it turns out, because the R4’s brakes are particularly sharp and grabby; coming to a smooth halt using them is a challenge. But otherwise I’m finding the R4 good to drive, and its compact size feels just right for slipping down narrow city streets and squeezing into tight parking spots.

We haven’t been entirely confined to city limits, though. A day trip down to Wiltshire and back provided an insight into my R4’s broader capabilities. 

Because I set off early on a Sunday morning, the traffic on the M3 motorway and the A303 was light enough that I was able to sit at a steady 70mph almost uninterrupted nearly all the way to Stonehenge (avoiding a road closure on the more direct usual route through Salisbury). At that speed, the R4 isn’t as quiet as some of the other electric vehicles (EVs) I’ve run, but it was still a fairly relaxed journey.

My car was showing an estimated 185 miles of range when I set off with a full battery charge. The round trip – including a few extra miles along country lanes to get to a 14th-century pub called The Compasses Inn for lunch – was going to be about 200 miles, so I knew I’d have to stop for a top-up on the way back. 

As it transpired, that stop was needed not long after I started on the homeward leg, the remaining range readout having dropped quicker than expected. I knew there were some rapid chargers in Salisbury, so all I had to do was use the R4’s Google Maps-equipped sat-nav to find the most suitable one and follow its directions.

It was a Shell Recharge site – a brand that hasn’t had the best reputation for reliability in the past – but the four modern-looking devices were offering charging rates of up to 175kW, were all unoccupied when I arrived and proved easy to use. 

Even after years of driving EVs, I still have this slight fear in the back of my mind that public charging won’t always go without a hitch, but this time any doubts were unjustified. After 20 minutes or so, my R4’s battery was back up to 80%, giving me plenty of range to get home. Still, I can’t help but think that, in most of the other EVs I’ve run, this trip would have been completed easily on a single charge.

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