Zoe Garners Awards at Paris Motor Show (Image: Renault)
The Zoe has been voted ‘Best Green Car’ of the 2012 Paris Motor Show by listeners of French radio station RTL and readers of the magazine Auto Plus. The new Clio was awarded ‘Best Production Car’; both were chosen from a shortlist of around 10 cars pre-selected by journalists from RTL and Auto Plus.
Zoe claimed 51 per cent of the votes in the ‘Best Green Car of the 2012 Paris Motor Show’, a sign, according to Renault, that the public sees the Zoe as a real car which combines attractive lines and innovative technologies with extreme respect for the environment.
According to Carlos Tavares, Renault’s Chief Operating Officer:
“These awards recognise the renewal process that the Renault range has undergone. They also mirror the outstanding welcome these two sensuous and innovative models have received from the public.”
Today Renault announced that it will supply DHL France with a fleet of electric vehicles by 2015. DHL has already confirmed an order of 50 vehicles, comprising both Kangoo Z.E. and ZOE, to be delivered between now and 2015.
François Guionnet, director of Renault Parc Entreprises, said:
“Renault is particularly proud to take part in this key stage of DHL’s GoGreen Program, which aims to reduce the carbon emissions of DHL by 30% by 2020.”
Meanwhile Hideaki Watanabe, Managing Director of Zero Emission Vehicles, Renault-Nissan BV, has been busy giving presentations at the Paris Motor Show. A week ago, while promoting the Zoe, he gave an upbeat interview where he stated the Alliance’s ambitious plans to have 1.5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2016. This has been reported as a significant increase in the target.
A couple of days later, he was advocating the development of a large charging infrastructure, with particular emphasis on fast chargers:
“Owners of electric vehicles are very positive about the cars, saying the cars are changing their mobility habits. But they are expecting a greatly expanded infrastructure. Put simply, the more quick chargers you have, the more EV users there will be… and the lower the levels of CO2 there will be in the atmosphere.”
In parallel Béatrice Foucher called for a joint effort to install more chargers:
“There are currently 20,000 charging points across Europe… but this is insufficient. At this stage of EV development there needs to be at least 50,000 points in place. Increasing this number is a collaborative project. Everyone – car makers, local authorities, utility companies – must work together if Europe is to be truly EV ready.”
Zoe at Paris Motor Show (Image: J. Saget/AFP via BFMTV)
Orders for the Zoe are going well at the Paris Motor Show. BFMTV announced that there were 10 orders in the first 48 hours.
Comments on the Automobile Propre site, however, imply that this figure reached 79 by 3 October (with delivery by 29 January), and 100 by 7 October (with delivery by 25 February).
According to the Green Car Website yesterday Renault has confirmed that the Zoe will participate in this year’s RAC Future Car Challenge. It has sufficient range to comfortably manage the 63 mile route from Brighton to London without recharging. Renault’s Andy Heiron said:
“Our main aim is to demonstrate through a combination of the coverage the vehicles and the event get and the independently validated results that electric vehicles are a practical, viable alternative to the internal combustion engine for a significant proportion of car buyers. We would hope to generate coverage and interest in the ZOE and use the results to validate what sort of range figures can be achieved in ‘real world’ conditions when an EV is well driven.”
Your one stop source for news and updates on the Renault ZOE. For the latest prices and deals with free charging visit FuelIncluded.com.
