Believe it or not, but the Renault Masters is one of the first large vans to have be made electric, so there's a lot to know about the Renault Master E-Tech range, not least because there was a whole generation of van long before.
The Renault Master E-Tech is the latest generation of the large electric van, but before that there was also the Renault Master ZE. In this guide we will look at the charging speeds, and the battery sizes of both vans as well as the electric range of the Master E-Tech and the Master ZE.
We'll start with the first generation of the large electric Renault van, before covering the most recent electric van models.
Renault's electrification journey started with the Kangoo ZE, but not long after they followed up the small van with a bigger brother.
The Renault Master ZE was the first-generation electric Master van, designed primarily last-mile logistics for the big French fleets. It wasn't very popular, but it was, for a long time, the only large electric van on sale.
Battery technology was still in its infancy, so the batteries were small and the range was not good. Let's take a closer look at battery, range and charging details for the Renault Master ZE.
The Master ZE used the same battery as the updated Kangoo ZE of the time, which was also borrowed from the Renault Zoe. That means this was a big van with a small car's battery installed. Not the greatest combination, as you can imagine.
Renault claimed the range was 95 miles, but in the real world you would be lucky to get 75 miles (120 km), and if you were carrying anywhere near the 700kg payload capacity you'd likely have as little as 50 miles. Later versions with a larger battery could achieve up to 126 miles.
The Master ZE was originally fitted with a 33 kWh battery taken from the Renault Zoe, this was later upgraded to a 52 kWh battery pack in its final years of production.
The Master ZE was designed for slow AC charging. That's because as a fleet vehicle Renault thought that the majority of its customers would be returning to base and charging up overnight. As a result it was limited to just having AC charging.
AC Charging Only: The Renault Master ZE had a 7.4 kW onboard charger, which took around 6 hours for a full charge. DC fast charging was initiially available and was never a standard feature, but became an option with the introduction of the 52kWh battery where it could charge at speeds of up to 50kW.
The E-Tech name was introduced to the van range after a number of the Renault passenger cars adopted the moniker in 2022. The Renault Master E-Tech meant that the ZE name was dropped but initially there was no change to the specification of the van.
That means that early Renault Master E-Tech models still use the same technology and battery as the last of the Renault Master ZEs.
The first proper Master E-Tech vans were introduced in 2024 when the Renault Master platform was given a complete overhaul. The Renault Master was updated to allow diesel, electric and hydrogen powertrains, with a chassis that was now much more suited to electrification.
As a result the latest Renault Master E-Tech has a greatly improved range and battery capacity.
The Master E-Tech has an impressive official WLTP range of up to 285 miles (460 km), depending on the specific model and gross vehicle weight (GVW).
The 3.5t model has a slightly shorter range of up to 255 miles.
The Master E-Tech comes with an 87 kWh battery pack in the UK, while in other regions there is also the option of a 40 kWh battery.
The Renault Master E-Tech is able to charge at a variety of charging speeds thanks to the AC and DC charging sockets.
AC Charging: The Renault Master E-Tech has a 22 kW AC charger as standard which can fully charge the battery in around 4 hours.
DC Fast Charging: Master E-Tech supports DC fast charging at speeds of up to 130 kW. This can add up to 157 miles (252 km) of range in just 30 minutes.
