Whilst my wife and I were at the Regent Street Motor Show in London last November, I also got to have a drive of a Renault Zoe EV. I was surprised that the queue for the test drives was not longer!
A rain soaked Berkeley Square on a Saturday is hardly adequate for putting a car through its paces on a proper test drive, but it certainly at least gave an opportunity for a brief evaluation. The fact that it was free certainly didn't go unnoticed either...
My uncle actually had a previous generation Zoe (a 2013 model), and so it was fascinating to have a go in the new version of his car. These little Renault Clio sized automobiles have just an electric motor for propulsion, no dirty fossil fuels are burned underneath its slickly styled bonnet. With an estimated range of 137 showing from what was probably a mostly full battery, I did not have the same sort of range anxiety I experienced when my uncle took me out for a spin in his in 2014 (he was lucky to get 80 out of his). I imagine if the weather was better, then this would be significantly improved.
The car was surprisingly normal to drive, although the rear space seemed limited, and the front seats had very high backs which made the interior quite claustrophic. Like most small cars, the ride was a bit crashy over poor surfaces, but it was perfectly acceptable. 0-30 mph (which was all that was legally allowed) was dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
I can see how, at around £15,000 depending on the model, Zoe would make a lot of sense to someone living in a city. It has four seats, has a good range, is easy to drive and is congestion charge exempt. Against it, longer journeys could be a bit of a problem, and the fact that one has to rent the batteries from Renault at a monthly fee is a bit of a bind. The resale value of used electric cars is also somewhat uncertain at present.
