Daily Archives: May 2, 2014

Renault Zoe Blog

Fixing the Renault ZOE’s Windscreen Reflection – Part 1

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Figure 1: Reflection in windscreen showing fogginess and distinct air vents (Image: J. Ross)
Figure 1: Reflection in windscreen showing fogginess and distinct air vents (Image: J. Ross)

It is widely known that the ZOE has a problem with its reflective windscreen, specifically the windscreen is long and steeply angled so it acts like a mirror and reflects a view of the pale dashboard into the driver’s field of view. This has two effects: it causes the view through the windscreen to appear fogged, plus elements of the dashboard (such as the air vents) appear to be ‘hovering’ in the driver’s view.

This issue has been discussed endlessly on multiple ZOE forums, for example:

The thread on this forum was started by John Ross and includes some striking photographs. The first one (Figure 1) shows the ‘fogginess’ of the view, plus reflections of the air vents in the driver’s view.

A clear way to improve the situation is for the dashboard to be naturally darker or for it to have a dark cover such as a dashboard mat. The second photo (Figure 2) shows the distinct improvement just from the presence of a piece of black cardboard.

Figure 2: The improvement from a piece of black cardboard (Image: J. Ross)
Figure 2: The improvement from a piece of black cardboard (Image: J. Ross)

John also posted a YouTube video (no longer available, unfortunately) that showed how to make your own dash mat, and so I decided to make my own.

More details in the next post.