Renault E-Tech (badge, not an engine)

E-Tech is a badge, not an engine. Renault uses it for its hybrids and its electric cars alike, and our rows show it on 1.2, 1.6 and 1.8 litres — and on cars with no combustion engine at all.

So the badge does not even tell you whether there is an engine, which makes it the least specific name in this catalogue. Establish whether the car is a full hybrid, a plug-in or battery-electric before anything else, because those are three unrelated diagnoses.

Where it is a hybrid, the interesting part is the gearbox rather than the engine. Renault's E-Tech hybrid uses a clutchless multi-mode transmission with dog clutches — no synchros, no torque converter, and the electric motors match shaft speeds before engagement. A shunt or a hesitation on the change is that system rather than the engine, and the symptom feels mechanical because it is.

The combustion side is the HR family, which has pages here, and the ordinary petrol story applies to it.