French car maker Renault has announced that all of its cars from 2022 onwards will have their top speeds capped at 180km/h.
Renault is the second marque to announce compressed speed limits, following a similar call from Volvo. The Swedish firm’s 180km/h speed limit across all models came into effect last year.
Renault’s new speed cap will also impact its bargain-priced Dacia models offered overseas, although admittedly many of them don’t have terribly high top speeds anyway.
The new speed limits are going to impact Renault’s performance-orientated RS models the most, namely the Nurburgring record-holding Megane RS hot hatch, which currently has a top speed of 262km/h in its Trophy-R guise.
Will this make a difference to how fun future Megane RS models will be? That depends on the buyer. Even those throwing out local speed limit laws (something we don’t condone) would be hard pressed to get anywhere near 180km/h on a fun backroad.
On the other hand, it’s a very different story for anyone who intends to take their Renault to a race track.
During the Trophy-R’s Nurburgring lap record attempt, it topped out at 257km/h on the Nordscheife’s main straight. It hit 204km/h at several other points of the lap, spending a healthy chunk of the 7min 40sec above 180km/h.
According to German outlet Der Spiegel, Renault CEO Luca de Meo told stakeholders during a recent conference that the measure will make roads safer and prevent deaths — citing that excessive speed is the cause of a third of the world’s fatal car crashes.
