At Renault, the Captur is currently the only model that offers both hybrid and rechargeable hybrid.
A rich offer that forces you to rack your brains all the more to make the right choice.
As if it were not difficult enough to find the urban SUV that suits us best among twenty models, Renault complicates things even further by offering not one but two hybrid versions of its Captur.
On one side a 145 hp simple hybrid and on the other a 160 hp plug-in hybrid.
Very few differences between these two twins – the performances are almost identical –, with the exception of a much larger battery under the floor of the E-Tech 160, which allows it to drive several tens of kilometers without swallowing the slightest drop of unleaded.
According to our independent measurements, count almost 50 km in the city and about 35 km on the road.
The verified electrical autonomy of the Captur E-Tech 160
Autonomy city: 47 km
Autonomy road: 36 km
Motorway range: 25 km
Taking into account the consumption of the charger, this rechargeable E-Tech consumes an average of 23.8 kWh / 100 km, or around 4 € / 100 km when its combustion engine is switched off.
Which, once the battery is discharged, remains sober with, still according to our independent protocols, an average of 6.3 l/100 km.
This is hardly more than the E-Tech 145, which claims for its part 5.7 l/100 km on average – around 9.20 €/100 km at the end of December – and cannot run on the sole strength of its electrons on a daily basis.
A priori, there is therefore every reason to prefer the rechargeable variant to drive cheap. But that's without counting on the difference in purchase price...
Tens of thousands of kilometers before making a profit
To confuse the issue a little and guide customers, Renault most of the time offers these two mechanisms with different finishes, which makes direct comparison complicated and makes it easier to digest the pill on the more expensive of the two.
But there are nevertheless two versions that allow it, namely “techno” and “E-Tech engineered”, the first being obviously the least expensive.
In “techno” finish, the E-Tech 145 is invoiced at €30,900 while the E-Tech 160 is exchanged for €37,950. A delta of €7,050 which will not even be reduced by the CO2 bonus in 2023 since the €1,000 rebate for certain "plug-ins" disappears on December 31.
Even if it is masked by the interplay of financial arrangements and LOAs, the price difference between the two variants remains high for those who would really buy the car and who would finance it themselves.
And the overinvestment in the rechargeable hybrid is difficult to make profitable for individuals. Since it depends on the time spent driving electric, the precise break-even point is not very clear. Nevertheless, a first estimate remains possible.
Driving only on electric, it would indeed take around 100,000 km to amortize the purchase of an E-Tech 160 compared to an E-Tech 145 depending on the price at the pump (between 1.70 € and €2.10/l on different scenarios), each kilometer traveled with petrol lowers this depreciation threshold. Suffice to say that recovering its costs is a challenge...
The only way to make real savings: turn to this same E-Tech 160 second-hand, in order to benefit from the lowest cost per 100 km without being penalized by the price of new.
Second-hand, this version sells for around €25,000 with very reasonable mileage. Otherwise, to buy new, individuals have every interest in turning to the simple hybrid.
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