The all-electic Renault Zoe is a supermini designed for urban living
Source: The all-electic Renault Zoe is a supermini designed for urban living
The new Renault Zoe is light, airy and perfect for zooming around the city
Words from Erin Baker, Editor-in-Chief at Auto-Trader
The Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf were the first two (relatively) cheap mass-market electric cars. Both are now in their second version, which seems crazy considering most people are just starting to contemplate the potential purchase of an electric car. Here we look at the total cost of owning a Zoe, from purchase to charging.
price
The government is still offering a £3,500 discount on the cost of your electric car and some automakers are also paying the cost of your home wallbox, which otherwise amounts to around £500-750. With the Zoe, Renault offers a free BP Chargemaster Wallbox.
On a monthly PCP (personal contract plan) deal, the Zoe costs around £270 a month, based on a £3,000 customer deposit and £3,108 Renault contribution.
In addition, you pay significantly less to charge your car with electricity than with petrol or diesel. Tip: Take out an electric car tariff with your energy supplier. I have a British Gas electric car tariff, which means I pay 19p per kWh of electricity during the day, while from midnight to 5am I pay 4p per kWh. I set the charge timer on the car to only charge between midnight and 5am, then plug it in and go to bed. The Zoe has a 52kWh battery so it costs me 52 x 4p which is £20.80 for a full charge or around 200 miles of range.
Maintenance and wear and tear costs are all lower because there just aren’t that many moving parts in an electric car.
style
While style is subjective, it seems a shame Renault hasn’t followed its rivals to streamline their electric car’s design for the second time around, sticking with the odd and vaguely comical egg shape, making occupants feel slightly ridiculous, unless , you want the Tiny Tikes vibe in town.
Inside, on the other hand, it’s light and airy, with lots of recycled and sustainable materials. In fact, it’s 22.5 kg of recycled synthetic materials. Aside from the base Play trim level, every Zoe gets 100 percent recycled dark fabric upholstery on the seats with light gray trim on the doors.
technology
This is where the Zoe excels and pulls away from the Nissan Leaf. While the base Play trim level gets a 7-inch center touchscreen, the top-of-the-line GT Line gets a large, swipe tablet with unique colors and graphics that challenge the industry standard practice: DAB radio stations scroll vertically with each station increases as your finger approaches the screen. The sat nav takes up half of the home screen but can fill the entire screen, and Bluetooth audio gives you the ability to scroll between smartphone-connected songs, which many do.
The cleverest thing is the acoustic warning tone for pedestrians under 30 km/h. It’s an eerie whistling and whirring that sounds futuristic, cool and helps save lives.
The Zoe continues with Renault’s insistence on having the volume buttons on a block behind the wheel, which never feels intuitive. There are blind spot warning and lane departure warning systems on the high trim level, while the base trim level offers climate control, air conditioning and smartphone connectivity.
comfort
Aside from tire noise at high speeds and artificial warning noises at low speeds, the Zoe is of course silent. It feels light and light with a surprisingly deep boot for shopping/dog and the charging cables (although you’ll want to remove these when not in use as they’re heavy and use more power). The seats are supportive and there’s plenty of storage space in the doors, as well as two cup holders between the front seats. There’s also plenty of headroom for four adults, thanks to the car’s peculiar high-slung bubble shape.
power
There are two batteries on offer, as are two engines – the R110 and R135. We tested the R135 with 134 hp – 0-100 km/h in 9.2 seconds. The Zoe feels nimble when pulling away at intersections, because all electric cars accelerate quickly from a standstill, but run out of steam when accelerating. If you slide the smart little gear selector from D to B, the car is supposed to slow down significantly when you lift the accelerator pedal, storing energy in the battery that would be wasted when braking. In practice, however, it’s not strong enough that you still have to hit the brake – Nissan’s one-pedal function in the Leaf is much stronger. The Zoe also doesn’t feel as sharp as the Leaf, with woolier steering and duller handling. But it’s hard to argue with the math on ownership: 200 miles for £20, a free wallbox to charge at home and £269 a month for ownership. Plus, you’re doing your little bit for the planet.
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