Renault Zoe still predominates Europe electric-car sales; longer range boosts sales

Longer-range Renault Zoe electrical car, introduced at two thousand sixteen Paris Motor Display

Ask a North American driver to name companies that make electrical cars, and you’ll most likely hear Tesla, maybe Nissan, and perhaps Chevy or BMW or Toyota.

Chinese drivers may be more likely to say BYD (and perhaps Tesla), but Europeans will likely name Renault. (And Tesla.)

The Renault Zoe, now in its fifth year but entirely unknown to U.S. and Canadian buyers, proceeds to be the best-selling battery-electric car in Europe.

Its maker is part of the longstanding Renault Nissan Alliance, which recently added Mitsubishi to become the fourth largest automaker in the world collectively.

The French maker just released its first-half global sales figures, and the Zoe proceeds to predominate the sales charts within Europe.

In Europe, as Renault notes, overall the carmaker had 26.8 percent of the market for battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

Longer-range Renault Zoe electrical car, introduced at two thousand sixteen Paris Motor Showcase

Its first-half sales volumes grew thirty four percent, and registrations of the subcompact hatchback Zoe rose forty four percent.

That meant the Zoe remains Europe’s top-selling electrical vehicle.

One factor that may keep the Zoe, which went on sale in late 2012, at the top of the charts is this year’s substantial upgrade in battery capacity.

Launched in two thousand twelve with a 22-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery and an effective range of sixty to ninety miles, it now offers a 41-kwh pack that gives a range of three hundred to four hundred kilometers (185 to two hundred fifty miles) on the European test cycle.

Renault Zoe e-Sport Concept being exposed at two thousand seventeen Geneva auto display [photo: Olivier Martin-Gambier]

Even if you were to downgrade that to a likely EPA rating of perhaps one hundred fifty miles, that’s still a major upgrade that radically increases the usability of the car.

And those owners who leased their batteries rather than buying them outright can interchange in their old 22-kwh battery for a brand-new 41-kwh one, gaining a far longer range in their existing car.

In its home market of France, meantime, the Zoe leads even more decisively. It represents almost seventy percent of all plug-in electrified passenger cars sold in the country.

The 9,200 Zoes registered from January through June were more than forty percent higher than the same period in 2016. New-vehicle sales in France totaled Two.48 million in 2016.

Renault Zoe still predominates Europe electric-car sales; longer range boosts sales

Renault Zoe still predominates Europe electric-car sales; longer range boosts sales

Longer-range Renault Zoe electrical car, introduced at two thousand sixteen Paris Motor Demonstrate

Ask a North American driver to name companies that make electrified cars, and you’ll very likely hear Tesla, maybe Nissan, and perhaps Chevy or BMW or Toyota.

Chinese drivers may be more likely to say BYD (and perhaps Tesla), but Europeans will likely name Renault. (And Tesla.)

The Renault Zoe, now in its fifth year but entirely unknown to U.S. and Canadian buyers, resumes to be the best-selling battery-electric car in Europe.

Its maker is part of the longstanding Renault Nissan Alliance, which recently added Mitsubishi to become the fourth largest automaker in the world collectively.

The French maker just released its first-half global sales figures, and the Zoe proceeds to predominate the sales charts within Europe.

In Europe, as Renault notes, overall the carmaker had 26.8 percent of the market for battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

Longer-range Renault Zoe electrical car, introduced at two thousand sixteen Paris Motor Showcase

Its first-half sales volumes grew thirty four percent, and registrations of the subcompact hatchback Zoe rose forty four percent.

That meant the Zoe remains Europe’s top-selling electrified vehicle.

One factor that may keep the Zoe, which went on sale in late 2012, at the top of the charts is this year’s substantial upgrade in battery capacity.

Launched in two thousand twelve with a 22-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery and an effective range of sixty to ninety miles, it now offers a 41-kwh pack that gives a range of three hundred to four hundred kilometers (185 to two hundred fifty miles) on the European test cycle.

Renault Zoe e-Sport Concept being exposed at two thousand seventeen Geneva auto demonstrate [photo: Olivier Martin-Gambier]

Even if you were to downgrade that to a likely EPA rating of perhaps one hundred fifty miles, that’s still a major upgrade that radically increases the usability of the car.

And those owners who leased their batteries rather than buying them outright can interchange in their old 22-kwh battery for a brand-new 41-kwh one, gaining a far longer range in their existing car.

In its home market of France, meantime, the Zoe leads even more decisively. It represents almost seventy percent of all plug-in electrified passenger cars sold in the country.

The 9,200 Zoes registered from January through June were more than forty percent higher than the same period in 2016. New-vehicle sales in France totaled Two.48 million in 2016.

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