It's electrifying!

new 41kWh battery which has double the energy of most other battery packs currently used in electric vehicles.

Leasing the new high-power battery costs £59 a month with an annual mileage cap of 4,500 miles up to £99 a month for a 10,500 mile limit and from 2017 Renault is offering an unlimited mileage plan for £110 a month.

Do the math, as they say, and that works out at around five years of electric motoring before the battery rental adds up to match the higher retail price.

The Signature Nav Zoe we sampled was on the posh side, came with big leather seats and an interior decked out in many shades of grey, gold and brown which matched the car’s exclusive paint job which Renault is calling Ytrium grey.

On the dash is a neat looking graphic designed to reflect its plugged-in status and it’s a pattern repeated throughout the interior, on the head restraints and even in the roof lining.

The high grade Zoe also had a Bose sound system, brightwork around the air vents and a sat nav connectivity system set up specifically for EV us to show available range and charging points.

On the road, apart from being incredibly quiet in the cockpit the Zoe is very easy to drive with only two automatic gears (forwards and reverse), well-weighted power steering and an air-conditioning system designed not to consume too much energy.

Performance off the mark is brisk – taking less than nine seconds to reach 50mph and a top speed of 84mph allows for motorway cruising.

A speed limiter, cruise control and parking cameras are standard and boot space is slightly above family hatch average ranging from 338 to 1,225 litres.

So far Renault has sold more than 5,000 Zoes in Britain and last year notched up 1,800. This could be the car that turns the corner for electric vehicles. Chris Russon