Renault HR18 (1.8 E-Tech)

Renault's 1.8 petrol four — the combustion half of the E-Tech hybrid in the Captur and Dacia Jogger.

It is a hybrid engine and not a car engine that happens to be hybridised, which is the useful distinction: it runs the Atkinson cycle, has no starter motor and no alternator in the ordinary sense, and its idle, start and load behaviour are all decided by the hybrid controller. A complaint about any of those is a question about the system.

The gearbox behind it is the unusual part of E-Tech — a dog-clutch multi-mode transmission with no synchromesh and no torque converter — and a great many complaints attributed to the engine belong there.

It is very new and there is no settled record. What can be said comes from the design: it is chain-driven, port-injected, and its service interval exists to protect a system rather than just an engine.