The Renault Embleme has been unveiled ahead of its public showing at the upcoming 2024 Paris Motor Show, and it is built to showcase the French manufacturer’s approach to electrification with what it calls a dual-power setup, and this combines a 40 kWh battery aimed at everyday use, along with a hydrogen fuel-cell for longer journeys.
Sporting the form of a shooting brake, the Embleme measures 4.8 m long with a wheelbase of 2.9 m and a height of 1.52 m, and Renault is aiming for a weight of 1,750 kg, which will make it weigh less that most hybrid SUVs or EVs of a similar size, says the manufacturer. The Embleme is built on the carmaker’s AmpR Medium platform, which underpins the Megane E-Tech Electric and Scenic E-Tech.
Aero-optimised elements on the Embleme include the use of rearward-facing cameras in place of conventional mirrors, windscreen wipers concealed beneath the bonnet and door handles which are recessed into the bodywork.
Bonnet-mounted fins and vents on the bumper channel airflow towards the windscreen and behind the wheels, respectively, and the wheels use a disc-like design for smoother airflow. At the rear, an active diffuser tilts downwards to balance airflow and minimise aero drag, resulting in a drag coefficient of 0.25, says Renault.
The Embleme follows the Scenic Vision concept from 2022 in combining battery-electric and hydrogen power, the former with the 40 kWh battery supplying a 160 kW (218 PS) rear-mounted motor for a battery range of ‘several hundred kilometres’, and the latter coming from a 30 kW fuel cell supplied by a 2.8 kg hydrogen tank, offering a claimed efficiency of 60%.
Renault claims the versatility of this powertrain enables the vehicle to cover a distance of 1,000 km as quicky as a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine, without charging but with two stops for hydrogen refuelling at five minutes at a time, for a range of 350 km.
Given an example of a journey from Paris to Marseille, or around 780 km, Renault says 75% of the energy consumed by the vehicle is produced by the fuel cell. As the Scenic production EV was preceded by the Scenic Vision concept that emerged as a electric-hydrogen hybrid, the production version of the Embleme could also be productionised as a battery-electric model.
The efficiency of the Embleme extends to its total emissions throughout its lifecycle, which is a claimed five tonnes of CO2 from cradle-to-grave which factors in material extraction and component production, vehicle assembly, transport, use, maintenance and recycling.
This is reduced from the 24-tone CO2 emissions equivalent of a Megane E-Tech Electric, and represents a reduction of around 90% from the 50-tonne CO2 emissions equivalent forecast for a petrol-powered Captur, says Renault. Its EV development division, Ampere will unveil the Embleme ‘in full’ at the end of this month, the carmaker said.
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