The European Car of the Year award, seen as the most prestigious of all COTYs, has been scooped by the Renault Scenic E-Tech this year. The electric crossover, reusing the name of Renault’s beloved segment-defining MPV, received 329 points from the 58-strong jury, as well as 22 votes that put it as the best car amongst the seven finalists.
It narrowly edged out the G60 BMW 5 Series, itself having gone through a reinvention and is now available in fully-electric form; that car scored 308 points and earned 19 best votes. In third sits the new Peugeot 3008 with 197 points and three best votes.
The rest of the rather electric-heavy finalists were the Kia EV9 with 190 points, Volvo EX30 with 168 points, BYD Seal with 131 points and Toyota C-HR with 127 points. All of them were either pure electric or came with electric or plug-in hybrid options.
It was a rather fitting win for the Scenic E-Tech, coming 27 years after its seminal forebear clinched the gong itself back in 1997. Of course, the new version is a far cry from the original, now a regular crossover that’s actually significantly lower than its predecessor, despite the extra ground clearance.
Even so, the Scenic E-Tech does maintain at least some of the Scenic DNA, boasting an impressive 38.7 litres of storage space in its interior, an ingenious rear armrest with built in tablet and cup holders and a claimed segment-besting 545-litre boot.
Based on the same CMF-EV platform as the Nissan Ariya and the really rather similar Megane E-Tech, the Scenic E-Tech comes with a choice of two powertrain options. The range starts with a 170 PS (125 kW) model with a 60 kWh battery that provides a range of 420 km, while the range topper boosts output to 218 PS (160 kW) and has an 87 kWh battery for 620 km of range.
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lol typical the french voting for their own
Ideally franks would like to vote for Moroccan car but it’s none existence