Renault’s Mégane E-Tech Electric Debuts Its Android Automotive SUV Powered By Qualcomm Chipset

Renault revealed its Mégane E-Tech Electric car that is integrated with Google’s Android Automotive operating system. Per Renault’s announcement, Qualcomm’s ARM snapdragon semiconductor will power the Android Automotive OS and the EV itself.

Remember, in 2018 the likes of Renault, Mitsubishi, and Nissan initiated an allied operation with Google, which requires the automakers to adopt Google’s custom car operating system. Now, Renault has taken the lead to build its Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV with Google’s Android Automotive OS.

The Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV integrated with the Android Automotive OS will roll out with Google’s custom products including, Play Store, Maps, and Assistant — it will feature as an inbuilt products service. As expected of Renault, the Mégane E-Tech Electric is an SUV electric vehicle that has two different models compatible with the Android Automotive OS according to the battery capacity.

Although Renault’s announcement on its proposed Mégane E-Tech Electric car models seems vague. The two major models of the Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV are evaluated by their battery capacity which is determined by the distance they are likely to cover. For contrast, the Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV car will be available with 40 kWh (300 km range / 186 miles) or 60 kWh (470 km / 292 miles) which is in line with its battery capacity.

For context, these technologies, a journey between Paris and Lyon, Paris and La Rochelle, Hanover and Copenhagen or Munich and Venice only requires a single short charging stop of 30 min, with an optimized consumption of only 12,8 kWh/100 km (WLTP).

It is worth noting that Renault is yet to reveal the names they dubbed the models of its EV SUV. Still, Renault built quite a masterpiece with its Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV’s dashboard that is sized 12-inch (1250 x 1562) and the 12.3-inch (1920 x 720. The Mégane E-Tech Electric dashboard has a touchscreen for simplified operation, per Renault’s announcement.

Google’s Android Automotive OS integrated with Renault’s Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV has the Play Store as the default option to access third-party apps for multimedia and maps for navigation. Google Assistant will also be accessible by voice commands which won’t interrupt a user while driving. Google Maps will also be active for simplified navigation by default.

Google Maps is quite responsive to record the number of times the Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV car recharges. The UI on the EV dashboard also has default multimedia that interacts with the Android Automotive OS which explains why Google’s Play Store is also available to access other third-party multimedia apps which is preferable to the users’ choice.

Aside from Google’s custom apps, the Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV dashboard has five major tabs, such as the car Setting, music, user profile switcher, calling, and other tabs for navigation. These tabs have a unique subsection for different functions to either adjust the fan speed, temperature, weather forecasts, etc.

With the touchscreen aside, the Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV dashboard also has physical buttons close to the screen. On the other hand, Renault’s Mégane E-Tech Electric SUV car is the first of its kind to power its vehicles with Qualcomm’s next-generation chipset built by ARM.