The What Van? Road Test: Renault Kangoo (2022)

Date: Friday, February 24, 2023

What do the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus all have in common? They are all right-hand drive markets, which means none of them are currently benefiting from the Open Sesame door available as an option on the latest Renault Kangoo in left-hand drive countries.

That must be counted as a disappointment because the door allows the entire side of the van to be opened up for ease of loading and unloading. Eliminating the B-pillar, it is one of the few genuine innovations in the structural design of light commercials to appear in recent years.

Renault’s British operation is pushing hard for Open Sesame to be rolled out on this side of the Channel. We can only hope it succeeds.

In the meantime the most recent iteration of the Kangoo has plenty of other things going for it.

Winning the What Van? Compact Van of the Year Award for 2023, it boasts a revamped cab interior, a restyled exterior with C-shaped LED daytime running lights and a host of driver assistance features. Unfortunately rather too many of them are optional rather than standard, adding to the vehicle’s overall price should you want them.

The improvements made to the electric model represent perhaps the most significant changes, given the steady swing in favour of zero-emission vehicles.

The old battery-electric Kangoo came with a 33kWh battery delivering a claimed maximum range of 143 miles between recharges, and a 44.7kW (60hp) motor. Its E-Tech successor boasts a 45kWh battery, a claimed range of 186 miles, and an 89kW (121hp) motor.

A full recharge can be completed in just over six hours using a 7.4kW wall box, while 80% of the battery’s capacity can be replenished in just over 40 minutes using a 75kW DC rapid charger, says Renault. Recharging from 15% to 80% using a 22kW public charger takes 1.5 hours, the manufacturer adds.

Customers wedded to more traditional propulsion technologies can opt for a 1.5-litre Blue dCi diesel at either 95hp or 115hp. The latter is available solely with the optional seven-speed automatic EDC transmission.

The 1.3-litre 100hp TCe petrol engine may prove popular among businesses on short-haul local work that are horrified by the price of diesel, but as yet do not want to go electric.

A six-speed manual gearbox is standard across the diesel/petrol line-up apart from on the 115hp variant.

Kangoo customers can opt for either a short or long wheelbase model with load cubes of 3.3m³ and 4.2m³ respectively, and choose from two specification levels; Start, or the more upmarket Advance. Mention should also be made of the availability of a crew van.

We got to grips with a short-wheelbase 95hp diesel ML19 Blue dCi 95 van in Start trim. Here’s how we fared.

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