Renault Captur: unique offering with French bravado

A car with enough space for the whole family, but which you can also park easily in crowded cities. Which offers the comfort and technology of a more expensive luxury car, yet is affordable to the general public. And which can drive fully electric, but which also allows you to travel long distances without having to recharge in between. Everybody wants that, right? Renault has such a car, which listens to the name Captur E-Tech Plug-in Hybrid.

It is quite difficult to develop a car that comfortably seats four to five people, offers enough luggage space (536 liters) for all of us to go away for a long weekend and features an advanced plug-in hybrid powertrain (PHEV), without making the car too big, too heavy and too expensive. Renault has managed to pack all of the above features including a wide range of valuable technology for comfort, multimedia and safety into a compact SUV of “only” 4.22 meters long.

The Renault Captur is one of the very few in its class that is available with plug-in hybrid drive at all. But more importantly, the Renault Captur E-Tech Plug-in Hybrid is the cheapest plug-in hybrid you can buy in the Netherlands. This puts the model in a unique position in the highly competitive B-SUV segment.

The future of car driving is electric, but much remains to be done before we all drive electric cars. Especially in terms of charging options, charging times and affordability of electric cars with sufficient range. A plug-in hybrid is the ideal intermediate step.

The Renault Captur E-Tech Plug-in Hybrid has a 1.6 gasoline engine and an electric motor. With a fully charged battery (which you must charge at a charging station), you can drive a distance of 47 to 49 kilometers fully electric. This is sufficient for most motorists for their daily trips. In fact, CBS figures show that Dutch people drive an average of 36 kilometers per day, while on average we drive only 9.7 kilometers per day to get to and from work.

But if you want to take a faraway trip with the Renault Captur E-Tech Plug-in Hybrid, you don’t have to worry about remaining range and finding a charging point to charge on the road. If the battery runs down, the drive system automatically switches to hybrid mode, where the gasoline engine and electric motor work together. This makes the Renault Captur E-Tech Plug-in Hybrid ideal as an intermediate step if you want to drive environmentally consciously, but are not yet ready for an all-electric car.

Keep in mind, however, that a plug-in hybrid only comes into its own when the battery is charged as often as possible. Only then will you drive electric most often and save the most gasoline and emissions. If regular charging becomes a tough story, Renault also offers the Captur E-Tech Hybrid with a full-hybrid powertrain that is also extra fuel-efficient and partially electric, but you don’t have to charge it yourself at a charge point. And while we’re on the subject of engine options, the Renault Captur is also available with a choice of three gasoline engines. So there is something for everyone.