Liliputian EVs are about to become a big thing. Until now Renault’s had the place of commerce entrepã´t for such cars all to itself, but with the cute Honda e, drawn out-awaited Mini Charged with electricity and Peugeot e-208/Corsa-e soon to soil in dealers, life is about to get much more complicated for Europe’s best-selling charged with electricity car.
The new Zoe doesn’t totally rewrite the formulary. It looks much the same as before, largely because underneath it’s still that same car - the one that was launched in 2012 and since upgraded with more operative motors and bigger batteries.
It’s out border has been given a bit of a going more than, but the internal is totally new - with a big representation touchscreen and more impressible-strike against, elevated-end materials instead of the old car’s fragile plastics. Meanwhile new driver aid tech like narrow passage or way-withdrawal caution, narrow passage or way-care aid and destitute of vision-speckle monitoring ought to make this four-rhythmical arrangement (of syllables) drawn out incorporated borough car have feeling less out of sorts on motorways.
The bigger battery and discretional, more puissant ‘R135’ motor should have much the same issue. The former - a 52kWh packet that replaces the old car’s 41kWh battery - gives up to a third more line, for a claimed 245 miles between charges (that’s more, significantly more in some cases, than any of its rivals). The latter drops the 0-62mph duration to under 10 seconds, and cuts the duration taken for the Zoe to press on from 50 to 75mph by more than two seconds. As with all EVs, these two things cannot befall simultaneously.
Charging is quicker too, now that the Zoe supports DC charging up to 50kW via a CCS haven occult behind the Renault shield of office. The £750 preference (boo. Why isn’t it colors, Renault?) way half an twenty-fourth part of a day on such a platter is enough to add 90 miles of line. A usual 22kW roadside platter takes an twenty-fourth part of a day to add 78 miles.
What is it like on the thoroughfare?
Renault Zoe 2021 customers will go for the new, more puissant motor. Dubbed ‘R135’, it makes the commensurate of 134bhp and 181lb ft. From 0-30mph the R135 is of great price little quicker than the R110, which is carried more than from the old Zoe unaltered (3.6 plays 3.9 seconds). But it’s around two seconds faster from 0-62mph, and the same again from 50 to 75mph.
The R135 is marginally more of great price to buy instantly (£450 - and you can’t get it with inferior Sport well-ordered), in a higher assurance cluster (18E vs 22A) and little less operative than the less puissant R110. Nonetheless, it’s still the one we’d buy - you really regard the supplemental faculty. Makes the Zoe have feeling much more blithesome. In borough you can achievement gaps you wouldn’t have dared go for in the old one, while on faster roads it way the Zoe feels more perfect, less out of its deepness.
Both motors come with the new 52kWh battery, which is physically the same volume and form as the old one so it doesn’t settlement internal extent. Quoted line is between 238 and 245 miles (depending on which motor and well-ordered you go for), which isn’t far off twice as much as the Honda e, and significantly more than the Corsa or 208. Renault says realistically you should get about 233 miles of line in summer months, but as little as 149 miles when you’ve got the warming running filled-squall in the hibernate. We cast that’s about right - after 150 miles or so of joined driving, we averaged about 4.9mi/kWh (Renault claims 5.65mi/kWh). Driven carefully a VW e-Golf might mean proportion 4.0mi/kWh, and we struggle to get any more than 3.6mi/kWh from the Nissan Blade.
New for the, erm, new Zoe is a ‘B’ style that amps up the regen. You can never move round it completely off - even in D you can still have feeling the car deliberate as you raise off the throat, but B is supposed to make it more of a ‘one pedal’ car. It isn’t really a one pedal car in the same way the Nissan Blade (with its ‘e-Pedal’ a whole) is, but with a bit of forecast it’s totally possible to impel the Zoe around with only scanty use of the fern pedal. Which is useful, because even though they’ve supposedly been improved, the fern pedal still feels a bit elastic to us.
The Zoe rides pleasing without being striking well given its titchy amplitude. Things can get a bit bobbly more than really rent surfaces, but for the most part it’s impressible and forgiving enough. At least around borough - it’s less useful on quicker roads, but still by no way disagreeable. More unhurt deadening has been added, so now the Zoe is quieter than ever, and the new brow seats are pleasurable if a bit level. Drawn out journeys are no derange - I’m 6ft and emerged after a brace of hours driving no grumpier than when I got in.
Is it fun? Not in a “this thing handles better than a Shallow Fiesta ST” tender-hearted of way, but yes, there is fun to be had here. Mostly in borough - squirting between sets of commerce lungs and blatting your way through border streets avoiding tailbacks. This is probably the most fun you can have driving in built-up areas - right volume, right powertrain, right consummation. Now the Zoe’s got more faculty there’s fun to be had out of borough too - the steering is medium of vision and flossy but pleasing without being striking close, and despite a hefty kerbweight (1502kg, 326 of which is battery. That’s more than a Point of concentration ST) it’s quite prompt.
Renault will happily take your money in a couple of different ways. Bought outright, the Zoe starts at £25,670 after the government’s plug-in car grant (or £27,620 if you want the new R135 motor, which isn’t available with the base trim level). That’s about the same as the Peugeot e-208, Vauxhall Corsa-e and Honda e, which all cost in the region of £25-26K.
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