Small, nimble, electric - Renault Zoe
French brands have always been good at small cars. While their saloons often struggled and never won much acclaim in Europe, their city cars were usually bestsellers. Has Renault managed to combine the qualities of a city car with an electric drivetrain?
The answer is: yes! The Renault Zoe is a handy, roomy little city car. For its size (4.08 m long) and purpose, it has plenty of space not only in the front but also in the second row. The wide-opening doors also make getting in easier. The picture of a practical 5-door body is completed by a 338-litre boot. It is a shame that no small compartment was found at the front of the car (30 litres would have been enough) to carry the charging cable.
Interior and range with the 40 kWh battery
In front of the driver is an electronic display with several modes. When you change the settings, it is not only the look of the interface showing the energy management system that changes, but also... the sound of the indicators.
With its 40 kWh battery, the car has one of the longest ranges among electric vehicles: in real life as much as 300 km, even with the air conditioning running at full blast. During homologation under the NEDC procedure, the manufacturer demonstrated a range of up to 400 km. As befits an electric car, you can use a dedicated app to switch on the heating or cooling remotely and follow the progress of charging from a distance.
What deserves criticism is the dreadful seats: they offer neither enough multi-way adjustment nor practically any side support.
Three ways to charge the Renault Zoe
Like most electric cars, the Renault Zoe can be charged in several ways. The simplest, and slowest, is to charge it from an ordinary 230V socket, the kind that commonly powers household appliances. A completely flat battery will be fully charged in about 15 hours. It is a good way to charge the car overnight, since that is roughly how long it will be parked outside your home between coming back from work and setting off again the next day. The charging cable comes with the car. Using a wall charger, you can roughly double the charging speed, as a full charge is reached after 7-8 hours. The most spectacular way to charge is rapid charging, using large units often located in shopping centres. The pioneer and leader in installing such chargers in Poland is Greenway, which boasts on its customer website of having 60 of them in Poland. I plugged the Renault Zoe into one of them, at the Promenada shopping centre in Warsaw. Tapping a contactless RFID card starts the charging process. Counted up to 80% of battery capacity, it will take about 1.5 hours. In this charging mode, the last 20% may take disproportionately longer.
The Renault Zoe is a great little city car: handy, neat and nimble. The latest generation has batteries big enough to let you drive for many days without recharging and even to plan intercity journeys with confidence. This little French car tops the electric car sales rankings in Europe, and only the Nissan LEAF can match it.
