The Renault Scénic () is a car which was produced by French car manufacturer Renault, the first to be labelled as a small multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) in Europe. The first generation was based on the chassis of the Mégane, a small family car. It became the 1997 European Car of the Year on its launch in November 1996. In May 2022 Renault announced it was discontinuing the standard Scénic with the Grand Scénic following shortly after. It will be relaunched in 2024 as a fully electric vehicle. The first generation Scénic added a four-wheel drive model called the Renault Scenic RX4, which was discontinued by the arrival of the Scénic II. The second, third and fourth generations have a model called Grand Scénic, which has seven seats rather than five. From the fourth generation (2016), the Scénic now utilizes three/four bench rear seats instead of three individual rear seats used in previous three generations, due to cost cutting measures. First generation (1996) The Mégane Scénic can be traced back to a concept car of 1991, the Renault S.C.E.N.I.C. (Safety Concept Embodied in a New Innovative Car) designed under the supervision of Anne Asensio, then designer at Renault. The production vehicle, the Mégane Scénic was launched in November 1996. It was marketed as a multi purpose vehicle, in a smaller size and lower price than such vehicles as Renault's own Espace. As its name suggests, the Mégane Scénic was mechanically identical to the Mégane hatchback (itself based on the older R19). The 1.4 L, 1.6 L "Energy", 1.8 L "F Type" petrol and 1.9 L diesel engines were shared with the hatchback range. The production model kept the independent seats of the concept car, but didn't offer sliding doors. Renault decided to add an acute accent to the production model name (Mégane Scénic), in order to assert its European identity, in a context of growing competition of newer car manufacturers coming from Japan. Renault underestimated the market demand that the Scénic would have — predicting that it would be a niche model with only 450 produced a day. Production at the company's Douai plant would eventually peak at nearly 2,500 cars a day. Facelift Along with the Mégane hatchback, the Scénic underwent a major frontal restyle in September 1999, and the newer 16 valve engines were introduced. The front end was quite a bit different from the Mégane counterpart, and there