TEENY-TINY TWIZY
Not quite a scooter, not quite a car, Renault’s electric vehicle is trying to wheel into Canada,
Slow, scooter like vehicle doesn’t fit into current laws and provincial regulations
It’s not quite a scooter, but it’s not really a car.
Renault’s tiny electric vehicle (EV), Twizy, which sits only two — with the passenger directly behind the driver — is coming to Canada. But where and when — or even if — it will be allowed on the public roads remains an open question.
“It’s a new category of vehicle — it’s in between a car and a scooter,” said Thierry Bataille, general manager of EV business development for Groupe Renault. “EV cars are the only answer to decrease gas emissions.”
Designed by engineers in Renault’s sports division, the French car company has sold17,000 units of the Twizy in more than 40 countries since it launched in 2012.
Jean-François Carrière, president of Azra, the distributor of the Twizy in Canada, plans to offer up 600 vehicles per province on a lease-only basis, as a way to introduce the product here.
Users can drive the electric vehicle, built in Spain, for $99 a month, including registration and insurance, on a three-year lease. Charging will be free for this year, but then will be based on an annual fee.
“It’s an urban car. Let’s figure you live in a condo building or work in an office tower, and you’d like to go to dinner,” Carrière said. “It’s for short trips.”
A condo building in downtown Toronto has already placed an order for five cars — though he declined to name the property.
“It could be used to run an errand, buy groceries. It will be covered by the common fees,” Carrière said, adding access to the electric vehicle would be viewed as an amenity.
A cargo version exists in Europe, with only one seat, so it’s popular with delivery services including pizza places that can stack up to 28 pies in the back.
Azra is committing $40 million over the next two years to build 2,000 charging stations across Canada, each with four outlets, in office towers, malls and condo buildings. The charging outlets are standard, which could be used by other vehicles like the Volt, Leaf or Tesla.
But it’s unclear whether this new vehicle can gain traction due to legislative restrictions on operations.
In March, Transport Canada approved the four-wheel vehicle, whose speed is capped at 40 kilometres per hour, with a range of about 100 kilometres on a single charge, as a low-speed vehicle.
But the catch is the Twizy must be approved by each province under highway traffic legislation to drive on local roads.
Only British Columbia permits them on roads with speed limits of 50 km/h or less.
It also has designated zones for these vehicles within the Nanoose Bay and Schooner Cove area on Vancouver Island, home of the golf resort community of Fairwinds, as well as Gabriola Island in the Gulf Islands.
Transport Canada said low-speed vehicles (LSV) are designed for use in controlled low-speed environ- ments where the access of conventional traffic is limited, such as gated residential communities, university campuses or industrial complexes.
“As such, Transport Canada does not encourage the use of LSVs on public roads, since they do not match the safety standards of conventional larger, heavier motor vehicles, posing a safety risk to people inside them,” said Transport Canada spokeswoman Natasha Gauthier in an email.
However, Quebec Transport Minister Jacques Daoust has promised to amend legislation to permit the vehicles under certain conditions.
“We are working to introduce such amendments within the next weeks before the end of the parliamentary session,” said Daoust’s press secretary Melissa Turgeon in an email.
In Ontario, these vehicles are only permitted on private roadways.
The province ran a pilot project from 2006 until 2014, where such vehicles could be used in parks or conservation areas, or property owned or occupied by universities or colleges.
“Since the pilot started in 2006, there has been limited interest and participation. There is little evidence to support LSV operation on Ontario’s roads,” said transport ministry spokesman Bob Nichols.
However, Nichols said ministry staff met with Renault and Azra officials this week, and discussions are continuing about reviving the pilot project.
Toronto has serious reservations about permitting a low-speed vehicle on city streets.
“What happens when a low-speed vehicle is moving in traffic with traditional vehicles?” said Nazzareno Capano, the city’s manager of operational planning and policy in transportation services.
“We’re concerned about the safety to the public.”
But Renault and Azra officials noted that the Twizy — whose name is a blend of twin and easy — operates all over the world in a mix of traffic.
In Europe, the low-speed vehicle does not require a drivers’ licence, while a souped-up version called the Twizy 80, which can get up to 80 km/h, requires the driver to be licensed.
“Fortunately, there are cities like Vancouver that have adopted municipal bylaws that allow LSV to be registered to be driven on public roads,” said Carrière, expressing confidence that other cities will adopt similar bylaws.
Leo Stocco, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of British Columbia, believes the future of EVs like the Twizy depends on whether legislation evolves to incorporate these vehicles.
“Legislation and technology evolve hand and hand. You can’t help it,” Stocco said.
He pointed to the popularity of ebikes or motors as add-ons to bicycles. It raises questions whether they should permitted in bike lanes, shared pedestrian and bike trails, or on sidewalks or roads.
“This is the problem, as the new technology pops up the legislation has to catch up to it,” he said, adding it then becomes an issue of balancing needs, especially if pedestrians are worried about e-bikes zipping past them on a trail.
In B.C., like Ontario, electric vehicles are permitted in high occupancy vehicle lanes as a perk. But then he asked: “What might happen if electric vehicles suddenly outnumber gas-powered ones some day?
“People are enjoying the benefits. EVs are driving in HOV lanes and whipping past traffic in rush hour. That has made it incredibly enticing to commuters,” he said.
Stocco believes that electric vehicles will continue to gain popularity, pointing to the waiting lists that have emerged for the new Tesla Model 3 that won’t even be available before 2017.
He said the questions about the Twizy are not unlike when Mercedes introduced the small two-seater SmartCar to the Canadian market, though it is not a low-speed car.
“They broke that barrier. As more people switch to commuter vehicles, you won’t be surrounded (by huge vehicles),” he said. “It’s an evolution. It won’t happen overnight.”