Elsewhere, the 4 experience is very much unchanged. The quality of materials is great for the price point, the seats are comfortable even over long distances and the touchscreen is easy to use and complemented by lots of buttons.
Apart from a retro-cool folded-up fabric pile on the roof, the 4’s exterior is unchanged, and 18 months later it still makes an impression that rivals can’t match.
The new roof has added 19kg of weight, but I couldn’t tell a difference on the road. The steering is still sweet, the ride comfortable and the performance adequate.
My test car returned 4.4mpkWh with the roof open on a warm day, suggesting 228 miles on a charge should be achievable.
Renault says this is the only five-seat electric convertible on the market, which if you’re generous enough to call it a convertible is true. There are only three other electric rag-tops: the four-seat, £27k 500e Cabrio, with 190 miles of range and a fairly cramped interior; the £182k Maserati Grancabrio Folgore, with four seats and 279 miles of range; and the £55k MG Cyberster, with two seats and 316 miles of range.
That makes the Plein Sud, at £27,500 in the lower of its two very well-specced trims, look like quite the bargain, and its 242-mile official WTLP range is only three down on the tin-top (Renault estimates that efficiency is roughly a further 5% worse with the roof down).