It was a goal that sounded, to many, like a bit of a tall order. Early in 2025, the folk at Renault set themselves a proper challenge: send an electric car over a 1 000 kilometres on a single charge, using a battery no bigger than the one in a standard Scenic and do it at a real-world motorway pace. No stopping to plug in. Their first crack at it in October was scuppered at the last minute by miserable French weather, leaving the team to pack up their ambitions with a sigh.
But on a crisp December morning, on the vast, sun-baked expanse of the UTAC test track in Morocco, they decided to have another go.
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Now, if the game was simply about distance, the solution would be simple: slap in a monstrous battery or crawl along at 30 clicks an hour. But that wasn’t the point. The mission was efficiency. The car, dubbed the Filante Record 2025, was fitted with a regular 87 kWh battery—the same unit you’d find in a Scenic E-Tech—and the instruction to the drivers was clear: keep the average speed above 110 km/h. The target was to crack 1 000 kilometres in under 10 hours, driver changes and all.
To pull this off, every trick in the book was used. The team obsessed over airflow, shaved off every possible gram, and selected materials with a jeweller’s precision. The car itself had to be both a scientific instrument and a nod to history. Its striking ultraviolet blue finish is a deliberate echo, a century later, of the record-breaking Renault 40 CV from 1925, with a wink to the legendary Étoile Filante of 1956. The cockpit, encased in a fighter-jet-like bubble, and the driver’s seat, inspired by Formula 1, completed the picture of a machine built for a singular purpose.
"The whole idea, from the first drawing to the final lap, was efficiency," explained Sandeep Bhambra, Chief Designer. "It’s in Renault’s blood. Just like those historic cars, this one was engineered to be the first of its kind to manage a thousand kilometres at over a hundred clicks an hour, without a charge. It took work on every front—the aerodynamics, special Michelin tyres, lightweight materials like carbon fibre, even steer-by-wire technology. It was a proper team effort with our partners to show what’s possible."
That team effort faced its first big test in October when the weather turned. Undeterred, they relocated to Morocco. On December 18, under a clear sky and a temperature that climbed from a chilly 4°C, the attempt began at first light. Three drivers—Laurent Hurgon, Constance Léraud-Reyser, and Arthur Ferriere—took turns at the wheel in a carefully choreographed dance of concentration and endurance.
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For nearly 10 hours, the silent, violet-blue prototype carved lap after lap around the 4-kilometre circuit. The pressure was a quiet, constant companion. "Three hours of total concentration, with the sun setting over that landscape," Laurent Hurgon recalled. "You're in your own bubble, just focusing on the numbers." Constance Léraud-Reyser spoke of the marathon feel, of using music in her ears to push through a four-hour stint. Arthur Ferriere, who brought it home after dark, talked of the determination to finish the job his teammates had started.
As night fell, the numbers told the story. In 9 hours and 52 minutes of driving, the Filante Record 2025 had covered 1 008 kilometres, averaging 102 km/h. Its consumption was measured at a mere 7,8 kWh/100 km. When it finally rolled to a stop, 11% of its battery remained—enough, theoretically, for another 120 kilometres.
For Renault, this was more than a record. It was a rolling laboratory. The lessons learned here, from the aerodynamic tweaks whispered by the wind tunnel to the feel of the steer-by-wire system, are destined to filter down into the electric cars of tomorrow. It was a demonstration, baked in the desert heat and realised through sheer human grit, that the horizon for electric travel is stretching further than ever before. And sometimes, proving a point is about the journey, not just the destination.
Colin Windell for Colin-on-Cars in association with
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