Brand New Renault Rafale E-Tech PHEV Atelier Alpine AWD 5dr Auto

Renault's ultimate Rafale is this E-Tech 300 atelier Alpine version. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Review

Renault wheels out its choicest engineering in this car, the Rafale E-Tech 300 atelier Alpine. It's got 4WD, four-wheel steering, Plug-in Hybrid tech and a healthy dose of Alpine motorsport tuning. The resulting unusual, complicated confection probably won't have been on your wish list if you're after a £50,000 fast saloon or hatch. Should it be?

Background

Renault's halo cars all used to be motorsport-tuned Renault Sport models, but all that expertise seems in recent years to have migrated to the company's Alpine brand. So what are we to make of a performance model badged as both an Alpine and a Renault; this car, Renault's Rafale E-Tech 300 atelier Alpine. The Rafale, should you be unaware of it, is the closest Renault these days gets to a big executive class model - in the UK anyway. The 300hp PHEV drivetrain in play here is the ultimate power source you can get in this car. And if you're considering it, spending a bit more on this flagship 'atelier' trim level gets you the full Alpine tuning treatment. All of which must work with no fewer than four power sources; a turbocharged combustion engine, front and rear electric motors and an integrated starter generator. Sounds intriguing.

Driving Experience

If you want your Rafale in the 'hyper hybrid 4x4 300hp' flagship plug-in hybrid form being served up here, you get quite a technical CV. This PHEV model uses basically the same drivetrain as the ordinary hybrid Rafale, but adds a turbocharger to the little 1.2-litre engine and pairs the front motor with an extra 132hp electric motor at the rear, so creating the advertised '4x4' system. With all these components added together, there's 300hp. And the drivetrain works with a vastly bigger 22kWh battery pack that you can plug and charge, enough when fully replenished for the car to run on pure battery power for commuting distances of up to 62 miles. When you're feeling frugal, you can exercise three 'EV Mode' settings - 'Hybrid', 'Electric' and 'E-save'. And when you're not, with the engine chiming in, 62mph from rest in this 'hyper hybrid' takes 6.4s. There's an extra 'MULTI-SENSE' driving mode too -'snow'. Here, we're trying the Rafale hyper hybrid 4x4 300hp model in its top 'atelier' form, in which guise it gains specific Alpine tuning for the anti-roll bars, the shock absorbers and the springs. And 'chassis control', which allows you to adjust the parameters of the car's 4Control 4-wheel steering system via three settings - 'comfort', 'dynamic' and 'sport'. This 'atelier' model is the only Rafale that comes fitted with adaptive damping (Renault calls it 'active suspension'). Ten engineers apparently spent three years developing it and, sure enough, there's a real polish to the way this car handles uneven surfaces.

Design and Build

This top atelier Alpine Rafale can be identifiable by black finishing for the floating rear spoiler. And bigger 21-inch wheels. Otherwise, the look is only subtly different to other variants in the range. The first thing you'll probably notice about this car is the unique front grille, fabricated from angled tiles shaped like the Renault badge, which usually seem to 'move' as you view them from differing angles. Almost equally eye-catching is the headlamp signature, with its boomerang-shaped daytime running lights. Forget the really large Renault models you might have grown up with; this is a modestly proportioned segment contender based on a lengthier version of the brand's usual CMF-CD platform. The Rafale is 4,710mm long, 1,860mm wide and 1,610mm tall, though the curved roof line makes it look a little more compact than that and 17-degrees of windscreen rake adds a sporty touch. Inside, Renault still hasn't quite succeeded in creating a really premium-feeling cabin, but it's a step up from the Austral model interior it's based on, thanks to some extra soft-touch surfaces and the use of some quite surprising materials like slate and blackened cork. The enveloping seats are bespoke and quite unique with illuminated elements. And of course there's plenty of screen tech, with a 12.3-inch instrument display and a 12.0-inch central screen which runs Google-designed software. A cabin highlight on plusher models is the huge (1,470mm by 1,117mm) Solarbay panoramic glass roof. This actually increases cabin headroom (by 29mm in the front and 10mm in the rear) and uses 'AmpliSky' Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal tech to darken the glass through four settings. These can be voice-controlled and the glass darkens automatically when you step out of the car. Rear seat space is generous thanks to this model's quite lengthy 2.74m wheelbase; there's 302mm of rear seat knee radius and 890mm of headroom. Plus back seat occupants get an ingenious rear armrest with storage for tablets, USB outlets and fold-out screen stands. Boot space is rated at 535-litres.

Market and Model

This top atelier version of the Rafale hyper hybrid E-Tech 4x4 cost just over £46,000 at the time of our test in Summer 2025. That's £3,000 more than the standard 'techno esprit Alpine' version of this model. This top 'atelier Alpine' hyper hybrid model comes with large 21-inch 'chicane black' diamond cut wheels, active suspension, a black version of the car's floating spoiler and specific Alpine tuning for the 4Control system, the anti-roll bars, the shock absorbers and the springs. Plus you get all the features of plush 'iconic esprit Alpine' trim, including a huge Solarbay panoramic sunroof; a 12-speaker premium Harman Kardon audio system, hands-free parking and a 360-degree around view 3D camera. What about Rafale safety kit provision? Well there are of course all the usual things; an active emergency braking system that recognises pedestrians and cyclists and works at junctions; and a full suite of lane features, including lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, lane change warning and emergency lane keep assist. There's also blind spot recognition, traffic sign recognition with speed warning, rear cross-traffic alert, driver attention alert and a multi-collision braking system so that if you hit something, the car's less likely to go on and hit something else. Plus of course all the usual airbags linked to an eCall system.

Cost of Ownership

If you're looking at this hyper hybrid 4x4 300hp PHEV model, then up to 65 miles of EV range is possible after charging the 22kWh battery, which from a typical 7.4kW garage wallbox takes 2 hours 55 minutes for a full charge. CO2 returns are rated at up to 12g/km when the full battery range is used (but it's 132g/km with an empty battery). Fuel returns for the 'techno esprit Alpine' version of this hyper hybrid model are rated at up to 564.9mpg on the combined cycle with the battery fully charged - and the car manages up to 48.7mpg when just running on its petrol engine. With the bigger 21-inch wheels of this top 'atelier' version (which drop EV range to 59 miles and the CO2 reading to 15g/km), the combined fuel figures are 403.5mpg and 44.8mpg. Total driving range from a fully-charged Rafale PHEV is up to 621 miles. And it's Benefit-in-Kind tax rated at just 8% (compared to 27% for the ordinary full-hybrid version). Since most Rafale models cost over £40,000, you'll be saddled with the government's 'Expensive Car Supplement' of £410, which will increase your annual road tax bill to £600.

Summary

It's hard to pigeonhole the Rafale E-Tech 300 atelier Alpine. It's a more serious driver's car than just about anything else Renault makes. But it's not really focused enough to be a fully-fledged Alpine model. It's equally hard to imagine what might directly compete against it. Yes, a £50,000 spend will get you this kind of performance from lots of different similarly-sized models, but none of them are engineered quite like this one. Managing to make 4WS and 4WD work so well together is impressive. Managing to get 300hp from a little 1.2-litre engine equally so. And the 22kWh battery is substantial enough for suburban users to operate this top Rafale like an EV. None of which will stop this Renault from being a vanishing rarity in our market. Still, it's far more interesting and exclusive contender than any comparable premium brand model. Which sounds an attractive proposition to us.