Renault Arkana Review

On paper, coupe SUVs should be the best of both worlds. You get the rugged looks and ride height of a crossover, with the sleek shape and extra efficiency of a saloon. That’s the idea, anyway, but unfortunately most coupe SUVs just end up feeling a bit compromised.

The Renault Arkana was only unleashed onto the UK market in 2021, but it already feels a bit past its sell-by date. The bits you’ll notice on the forecourt are still good – the styling stands out and the interior looks modern, especially on high-spec cars – but driving the Arkana and living with it will unearth its shortcomings.

Taking up over 4.5 metres of road space and being a stretched Captur should mean the Arkana feels spacious inside. Instead, the car seems to shrink around you when you climb inside, even though it still feels quite big to drive.

Every Arkana features a petrol engine and electric motor, with a 1.3-litre mild-hybrid being joined by a 1.6-litre ‘full’ hybrid. Neither need to be plugged in, so neither offers a huge electric range, but both offer good fuel efficiency figures. Again, though, the reality isn’t quite so rosy, and we’d like the full-hybrid version to juggle its two power sources better.

You might well like the Arkana, but there are more coupe SUVs on the block these days. We’d recommend at least considering the Peugeot 408, Toyota C-HR and Citroen C4 before settling on the Renault.

Most of the Arkana’s interior is lifted from the Captur and Clio, which is generally a good thing. The cabin is nicely laid out, with really nice controls for the air conditioning functions and a row of piano key buttons for some of the other features. It’s just a shame most of these buttons are blank until you reach the top trim levels.

The infotainment touchscreen is good to use, with quick responses and logical menu layouts. There’s a row of hot keys down the bottom to give you quick access to the home menu, volume controls and app screen. Renault’s built-in sat nav is good enough and there’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard, although we did pine for the Google Maps interface that you get in newer Renaults like the Megane E-Tech and Austral.

Given that the Arkana is relatively inexpensive, the interior quality is pretty good. Everything feels solidly put together and there are some nice textures and materials throughout the cabin. Lower-spec cars get a textured trim panel across the dash, while RS Line and Engineered versions get a surprisingly realistic carbon-fibre effect.

Earlier Arkanas came in Iconic, S Edition and RS Line trims, with the former coming with goodies like automatic LED headlights, a reversing camera and parking sensors, cruise control and an electric handbrake – plus safety stuff like lane-keep assist and auto emergency braking. This was later replaced by the Evolution trim.

Mid-range S Edition adds adaptive cruise control, auto high-beam assist, a larger touchscreen in portrait orientation, a system that adjusts your speed when speed limits change, blind-spot monitoring and ambient lighting – which is only in the front, unfortunately. When this became Techno trim, it gained wireless phone charging and a large digital instrument cluster.

RS Line (now called Esprit Alpine) adds sporty trimmings inside and out, plus a heated steering wheel, heated front seats and self-park assist. The E-Tech Engineered trim, meanwhile, swaps the RS Line’s tweaks for gold detailing.

By their very nature, coupe SUVs aren’t as practical as more conventional, boxier models. And in the Arkana, you do have to accept some space compromises as a result of its sleek shape. The second part of this double whammy is the Arkana’s hybrid-ness, with the battery mounted under the boot floor.

The resulting boot space is long but shallow. Renault says it’s a 480-litre space but it looks quite small, and its dimensions mean it won’t be able to carry taller items that you’d expect to get in an SUV or estate car. You’ll find it a challenge to heave heavy cargo into the high boot, as well. With the rear seats folded down, that frees up 1,263 litres if you don’t mind loading to the roof.

It doesn’t really matter if you do load to the roof, because you won’t be making the rear visibility much worse than it already is. And that’s especially true in winter – the back screen gets dirty quickly and the lack of a rear wiper means it can’t be cleaned on the move.

Besides a small glovebox, interior storage is decent enough, with useful door pockets, a net on the passenger side of the centre console and a phone tray ahead of the gear lever. You and your front-seat passenger will have to decide who gets the grande and who gets the venti coffee, though, because the cupholders aren’t the same size.

Rear-seat passengers do without cupholders, but they do at least get plenty of space. The Arkana’s length means rear legroom is pretty good, and there’ll be enough headroom for most adults. You can even sit three abreast without too much discomfort, because the rear bench is quite flat – just remember that your passengers won’t have much support if you start driving fast around corners. The Arkana has more rear-seat space than the Citroen C4.

There are also a couple of USB sockets to keep devices charged on long trips, and the easily accessible Isofix points make it a piece of cake to install a child seat.

There are two engine choices in the Arkana, and neither are designed to get your pulse racing. The entry-level engine is a 1.3-litre mild-hybrid turbo petrol with 140hp – which is broadly the same as the one in the Nissan Qashqai and is likely to be an inoffensive choice – or you can step up to the 1.6 E-Tech full hybrid.

The E-Tech’s combined output is only 5hp more than the mild-hybrid petrol offers, and that’s made up of a 49hp motor and a 94hp non-turbo petrol engine. Admirably, the car’s computer wants to prioritise the electric motor and drive on electric power as much as possible – and around town, you can enjoy some of the smooth experience that you get in a fully electric car. The B mode for the regenerative brakes builds up progressively, so you’ll quickly learn to trust it and use it to recharge the small battery.

But once the electric motor is out of ideas, the petrol engine kicks in with all the subtlety of a police ram raid. It’s gruff and coarse, and the effort and noise that the engine is making is often at odds with the speed you’re actually going. Persevere up to motorway speeds and the hybrid engine’s lack of torque means it can feel quite strained. That goes up a notch when you tackle steep hills. It’s a shame, because a more clever hybrid powertrain – like the one in the Renault Austral – would suit the Arkana’s trendy feel really well.

The hybrid engine can be quite economical if driven very gently. While you’re very unlikely to match Renault’s 60mpg claim, you should be able to get 50mpg – slightly less in winter – if you’re in an area without lots of hills or motorways.

While the hybrid engine behaves at lower speeds, the ride is busy and unsettled. If you see an Arkana driver swerving, it’s probably to try and avoid a pothole that might send the driver to a chiropractor. With a high ride height and modestly sized wheels, the Arkana should make light work of pockmarked city roads, but it can feel like hard going.

At higher speeds, the Arkana settles down and becomes more comfortable. So the standard 1.3-litre engine should be a decent option if you’re planning to point an Arkana at the motorway network.

The Arkana is capable on twisty roads, with plenty of grip and limited body roll. The steering is lifeless, though, especially around the straight ahead, which discourages you from sporty driving. Treat it as a simple A-to-B machine and you shouldn’t be too disappointed.