Well, they have advertised the Zoe quite a bit in London with billboards and the Zoe is also placed centrally in the ‘new lineup’ at the end of the current Captur ads on TV. However, Renault have a balance to maintain across their range and manufacturing.

Personally I don’t think we will see the Zoe advertised (relatively) heavily until the spring. My reasons being:

1) The cost of the Flinns plant refit was massive and the big money maker for the plant atm. is the Clio. It’s been very successful and still has long lead times. Selling more Clio’s pays for the refit and also the development work on the new-gen platform shared with the Captur and the Zoe. More Zoe production means less Clio production.

2) The Captur is being launched into a market that didn’t exist until the Juke arrived and a lot of companies are racing for market share. Time pressure is greater so Renault are, sensibly, pushing the Captur at the moment. This effectively closes the advertising for other models until christmas and car sales are slow over christmas (except for the luxury brands). In contrast, there is little real competition in the Zoe’s market space – even the Leaf is considered in the next size class up and so not a direct threat.

3) Renault haven’t got their battery production facilities up to speed yet – they are still having to buy in their battery packs. This is almost certainly resulting in higher costs and lower volume availability.

4) This is all very new technology and it benefits Renault to sell a few thousand then see what problems turn up. Not just with the car but with sales, training, manufacturing, logistics, after-sales, interactions with other companies (e.g. BG) and the government etc. Furthermore, waiting a bit will give Ecotricity, Polar, the local government schemes and the big chains like Asda and Ikea the time to put in more chargers.

5) At the moment, BMW, Nissan, Volvo, Porsche, Audi, VW, Smart, Toyota and others are kind of doing the general EV word-spreading for Renault. The motoring press has lots of articles about high-end, high-priced concept cars and once this general idea that EV is desirable has spread and the old Top-Gear influence has faded a bit consumers will be more tuned to the Zoe. A good example of this is going to be the Geneva motor show next week which will generate loads of EV coverage.