Photographer: Jean-Brice Lemal
Renault Zoe, the region’s number one electric vehicle company in the first part of the year.
Renault Zoe, the region’s number one electric vehicle company in the first part of the year.
Photographer: Jean-Brice Lemal
Photographer: Jean-Brice Lemal
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Renault SA this week delivered the surprise of its sales figures to everyone who had paid attention only to Tesla Inc.’s inventory chart. The French manufacturer’s all-electric Zoe surpassed the Model 3 as the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe in the first part of the year.
This small subcompact, which has an initial price of 32,000 euros ($37,000), has come a long way since one day in 2009 when Carlos Ghosn, then director of Renault SA, presented a concept edition at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It was presented as the ideal automobile of the moment for families and the dawn of the manufacturer’s turn towards blank cars that would not warm the planet.
Zoe walking three years later. Some reboots and redesigns have slowly raised their profile among consumers. Then, over the next year, everything clicked. With nearly 38,000 games sold in Europe in the first six months of 2020, the four-door sedan surpassed Tesla’s Model 3, Volkswagen AG’s Electric Golf and Nissan Motor Co’s Leaf.
“It’s essentially the same car that has existed for a long time,” with some innovations in terms of reach, generation and design, said Felipe Muñoz, an analyst at the studio company Jato Dynamics. “So the new good fortune is a little surprising.”
It is not so unexpected to look at the incentives that car buyers now have that need to switch to electricity in France and Germany. The French government is providing up to 7,000 euros for the purchase of an electric car, and a money-for-scrap program can charge another 5,000 euros in grants. Germany grants incentives of up to 9,000 euros in line with the vehicle.
But what about the car itself? Bloomberg recently rented a Zoe to tour the French capital. Renault’s shared car service offers an older fundamental style that featured an indicator of comfort, handling and autonomy readily available to city dwellers.
The engine responds, almost too much when looking to sneak into a narrow parking lot, and provides more than enough to drive in the city, even as you walk through the city’s famous Arc de Triomphe roundabout. The giant touchscreen is complete with teams that have navigated through some of the french capital’s bustling districts and mapped charging stations.
The interior taste looked dated with an opaque black color palette, vintage lines and a manual dial to control the temperature. Space is not a challenge, it seemed more spacious than the outside suggested. Although it would be a tight compatibility even for 3 other small people on the back, it is comfortable at the front for two. The seats can’t be adjusted in height and the gear lever was a bit clumsy, but the ride was smooth.
When the Zoe restarted last year, critics discovered it was similar to the outgoing version, providing more diversity and power, increased braking and an aesthetically advanced interior. Accelerating on a wide Parisian avenue, even the old style reacted well to sudden accelerations and braking when a taxi suddenly stopped in front of the car.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced traffic in the world’s den densest cities for some time, street congestion is being rebuilt. The Zoe works well in urban centers due to its narrow and square shape and maneuverability.
The nearly five percent jump in The Zoe’s European sales in the first half was the only positive in Renault’s bleak numbers in a different way. The car manufacturer, which is cutting costs, has secured a state-backed line of credit of five billion euros to weather the coronavirus pandemic.
The festival has arrived, with VW’s highly anticipated ID.3 starting to sell this week at around 38,000 euros. And the PSA Group is selling two new electric models, the Peugeot 208 and the Opel Corsa. “The ID.3 will be larger from a technological point of view, closer to style 3,” said Bloomberg Intelligence automotive analyst Michael Dean, predicting that the Zoe could be left behind.
Renault is more positive and feels some justification for so many years after the car first went on the market.
“Our electric offensive is working very well,” said Denis le Vot, Renault’s head of sales and marketing, referring to the advent of the new electric edition of the Twingo urban car and plans for hybrid editions of larger existing models. “The diversity of Renault still has many surprises in the store at the moment part of the year.”