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Range extender
I’ve been following your range woes with your Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric and saw the letter from Ivan Pereira (29 March) about him getting only 160 miles from his, so I thought I’d share our experiences, which are very different.
We’ve never driven our Techno model in temperatures over about 8deg C, yet we’ve never seen less than 190 miles of range and our best has been 267. In general it’s 220-235.
Motorway trips really hammer the range, down to 190-200. I’ve found that setting the cruise control to 66mph gives the best balance of speed and range; 67 starts to decrease range and 68 starts to noticeably affect it. Odd but true. The rest of the time we leave the car in Eco mode, other than when we need to overtake. We have the air-con off, the temperature at 18deg C and the fan on level one. As such, the cabin never steams up and feels comfortable enough.
Perhaps the most important contribution to range is to look much further ahead and to use the regen paddles. We hardly touch the brakes. Ensure the regenerative braking is on its lowest setting (it defaults to the next level up in Eco mode, which is less efficient if you drive well) and look ahead. If you can then let the car coast, you will recover huge amounts of energy.