Mégane E-Tech Electric: Renault relies on Snapdragon and Android Automotive OS

Renault is showing the Mégane E-Tech Electric at the IAA, the first representative of a completely new generation of electric vehicles based on the CMF-EV platform. For the infotainment system with L-shaped screen unit, Renault relies on the Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit from Qualcomm and Android Automotive OS (test).

The Mégane E-Tech Electric is scheduled to hit the market in March 2022, and Renault plans to accept pre-orders from February next year. The e-car should help the French to come a little closer to the goal they have set themselves of offering the greenest drive mix of all manufacturers in Europe by 2025. As the company announced at the IAA in Munich, since the market launch of the first electric vehicles in 2010, it has sold over 300,000 e-cars in Europe and around 400,000 e-vehicles worldwide.

CMF-EV platform ensures tight overhangs

The new, modular CMF-EV platform has been specially developed for electric vehicles within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance and is characterized by a compact engine compartment, an extended wheelbase, wheels positioned far to the outside and tight overhangs. The platform was developed to provide space for very flat batteries with high energy density. The Mégane E-Tech Electric is 4.21 m long with a wheelbase of 2.70 m, 1.78 m wide and measures, according to Renault, with a height of 1.50 m, only a few centimeters more than the current Mégane with a combustion engine. Renault specifies the weight at 1,624 kg. Two drive variants are planned: 96 kW/130 PS in the base and 160 kW/218 PS, with the latter to do the sprint to 100 km/h in 7.4 seconds. The top speed is electronically limited to 160 km/h.

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Batteries are planned with 40 and 60 kWh with ranges according to the WLTP cycle of up to 300 km and up to 470 km, respectively. According to Renault, the batteries come with 600 Wh/l, a 20 percent higher energy density than in the Zoe. This is made possible by a new chemical composition. The power storage of the Mégane E-Tech Electric is a lithium-ion NMC battery (nickel, manganese, cobalt) that contains more nickel and less cobalt. The 40 kWh battery consists of eight modules with 24 cells each, which are distributed over one layer. The 60 kWh battery consists of twelve modules with 24 cells each, which are distributed over two layers. At the DC fast charging station, charging with up to 130 kW for a range of 300 km is possible in 30 minutes.

L-shaped infotainment system

Renault designed the interior with a new, L-shaped infotainment system based on the 3rd generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit from Qualcomm. Qualcomm presented the automotive processors a good two and a half years ago at CES 2019 and divided them into the performance classes of Performance, Premiere and Paramount. What exactly is built into the Mégane E-Tech Electric is not yet known, but the chips with modified Cortex-A76 cores from ARM and Adreno 600 GPUs are roughly based on the Snapdragon 855. This year at CES, the 4th generation became announced, but mass production will not start until 2022.

12 and 12.3 inches divided by an air outlet

Renault uses the “L” to connect the digital instrument cluster and the portrait-format multimedia monitor in the center console to form a display area of 774 cm², 453 cm² of which is for the 12-inch central display and 321 cm² for the 12.3-inch screen behind the steering wheel. The connected component is visually interrupted by an air outlet. A high luminosity and an anti-reflective coating should “guarantee” “excellent readability” even in full sunlight.