Renault will give the Mégane a radical 'hot hatch' facelift next year, in an effort to revive the EV’s stark downturn in sales.

The current Mégane launched in 2022 as one of the first of Renault's new-age electric cars.

While successful at first, after four years sales have dipped rapidly: down 67% (to 10,082) in the first half of 2025 compared with the year before. 

This has coincided with the brand launching newer - and cheaper - EVs in the Renault 4 and 5 within the past year, in which time they have racked up more than three times the hatch’s sale.

Now, Renault CEO Fabrice Cambolive has confirmed  the firm wants to reposition the Mégane as a “hot car”.

Speaking at the launch of the new Clio at the Munich motor show, he said: “Mégane E-Tech was our first, first, real EV since the beginning of ‘Renaulution’. It was launched at a moment where the EV [uptake] was not so high. 

“Now, what we are looking for is to have a hot hatch or a hot car. That's the direction we want to go in.”

While he was coy on any technical specifics, Cambolive said the car will get a larger battery. This is likely to be the 91kWh pack used in the larger Scenic, in which the battery offers up to 379 miles of range – an increase of 87 miles over the most efficient current Mégane. 

This need to refresh the hatch was backed by Renault Group design boss Laurens van den Acker, who admitted: “We need to sell more of it”.

To do that, he added: “We need to do something. If you put a new battery in the car, which is very expensive, and you don't change the car, then it's really hard-pressed to seduce people to pay more for it. 

“So we needed to do justify to change underneath the skin by showing something on the skin. And then we thought that what the world was missing was kind of a hot-looking EV. 

“And so we thought we had nothing to lose, so we'll just push that.”

Autocar understands the facelift will involve a new grille, fresh daytime running lights and a lower and wider stance, although van den Acker would not be drawn into specifics.

The new Megane will arrive in the middle of next year, likely holding a premium over the current car’s £32,495 starting price.

It’s a curious thing with hot hatches – they’re much lusted after when they’re the cars of the moment and the best of their breed.

But when that moment has gone and the next superheated hot hatch arrives, they fade as fast as a tropical sun. They get used up until suddenly, there are hardly any left. And fewer still that you’d give drive-space to. 

The X85 generation RenaultSport Clio has yet to reach the decimation phase, but its X65 predecessor has despite this car being the hot hatch to have in its day. You’ll occasionally find a crisp Clio 182 with low-ish miles. But these are the exception - most have been thrashed, trashed or crashed.

But there signs that its successor may not quite go the same way. A tempting trip through the classifieds reveals several that have clearly been pampered, come with all the right bits and have a heap of life left in them. So perhaps the X85 Clio RenaultSport is going to buck the hot hatch trend, allowing a decent number of coveted and cared-for examples to survive. High prices potentially make it too expensive to track-day these machines to oblivion.

That said, a track is where you best experience the superb handling of this car, especially if it’s equipped with the coveted Cup option. Though if you’re shopping for an X85, you need to know that there were two ways to acquire this confection. In its most extreme form, the Cup option was not only about recalibrating the springs and dampers for still greater agility, but also about paring weight, specifically 20kgs-worth.

To make that gain, Renault deleted the air conditioning, keyless entry and curtain airbags, and installed the lower-rent dashboard of the most basic Renault Clio, complete with steering column adjustable for rake only. You could order the air conditioning and curtain airbags as options, but not the higher-grade dash, reach adjustment or keyless entry.

You paid £1000 less for this version – a refreshing contrast to Porsche, which will charge you (loads) more for an RS with less, but better still was that the Cup chassis could be ordered with standard car. In this form the Clio weighed only 1.6% more, making this the optimal choice. But if you’re shopping, you need to be sure of what you’re getting.

And what was so special about the Cup suspension? It wasn’t as if the standard car shortchanged in the gripping, turning, swerving and stopping departments. But those reworked dampers and springs tightened the Renault’s body control, deepened its athleticism and sharpened your impression of the tyres’ intimacies with the road below. And all without ruining the ride. The steering could still have weighted up more informatively when you got some boldness on in a bend, but the Clio Renaultsport Cup was unquestionably top of the pile, not least because of the lift-off, tuck-in liberties you could take with this wonderfully game chassis, and a revvy engine to goad you on.

It’s still hard to beat even now. One major reason for that is that its paddle-shift only, five-door successor doesn’t quite continue the magic, despite Dieppe’s effortful fettlings. But the main reason is that the X85 Clio RenaultSport remains one of the best-handling front-drive cars of all time. With luck, that will mean plenty of survivors.