Big improvements for big-selling Renault Zoe
Is there an electric car that’s easier to drive and live with than the latest Renault Zoe?
So absolute has been this second-generation Zoe’s transformation from novelty knockabout to neatly nuanced transport that Renault’sengineers even found time to incorporate a choice of three different sub-19mph moaning sounds to spare the urban ambulant the ambulance.
Its evolution has also resulted in an external appearance that gives no clues that it’s an EV, save a blue badge big enough to go on holiday on. On board, Joe 90’s bedroom has been replaced by a grown-up dash with 10-inch TFT instruments, a 9.3-inch multimedia screen on posh versions, a rocker lever gearknob the size of a toddler’s fist and fabric trim made from recycled seatbelts and plastic bottles.
Most significantly, though, are a new 52kWh battery offering a 32 per cent increase in driving range over its predecessor, and a new 134bhp motor which improves acceleration and raises top speed (albeit by only 3mph). Despite a seat set high and with no adjustment, driving’s a doddle. Power delivery is seamless, and urgent enough to not only promote a pleasing promptness off the line but also facilitate the overtaking of dustcarts, if not actual cars.
The steering is as precise and insensitive as the diction of a dowager duchess, and the undercarriage acceptably tenacious through corners. Yet you’re always aware that this is a heavy car – think Disney’s Fantasia hippos in tutus. You can chuck it around, but I don’t see most Zoe owners relinquishing hold of their sea otter, winkle and kelp crisps and dead nettle and yurt canvas smoothies for long enough to tax the tyre walls overmuch.
Ride quality is largely acceptable, but a propensity to crash over lumps and ridges reminds you that this is a 1500kg machine.
The brakes are infinitely better modulated and smoother than before. And a new B mode ups the regeneration deceleration so much that you’ll find yourself lifting off for a corner, then getting back on the throttle to drive up to it. How green it all is still depends to a large extent on where your electricity comes from, but the Zoe removes as many obstacles as any car can.
First verdict
Europe’s best-selling electric car is now Europe’s best small electric car. Now we just need the charging infrastructure to catch up #### #