Renault’s Zoe plug-in runabout packs plenty of pep into an affordable package
Awarded Europe’s top-selling plug-in for the first half of 2016, Renault’s Zoe electric vehicle has established itself an early adopters’ favourite
The Wan Chai tramline to Whitty Street is perhaps the most excruciating driving track in Asia. Hong Kong trams tend to crawl along it at about 15km/h, and thus force following drivers into a similarly slow dressage of clutch, brake and idle control.
Yet the electric Renault Zoe (HK$329,800) eliminates old-fashioned pedal-balance with one gear, and soothes idling stress with the 220 Newton metre oomph of its 88-horsepower motor. Driving in Wan Chai is simpler - and feels cleaner - even though coal might have been burned in Hong Kong to generate this five-door supermini’s power.
Built on the Clio’s production lines in Flins, 50km northwest of Paris, the 4.08-metre Zoe was launched in 2012. The runabout then became a plug-in early adopter’s favourite The following year, when it won a five-star Euro crash-test rating with a host of hill-start, steering and safety electronics. The specialist website hybridcars.com last month described it as the “top-selling plug-in car in Europe during the first half of 2016”, with 51,193 cumulative worldwide sales, 53 per cent of which were in France.
However, for much of this summer, this Zoe has sat in the back of Wearnes Motors (HK)’s Gloucester Road showroom, behind faster, flashier Renault RS Clios and Méganes. Yet this Cinderella commuter tells a bigger story about Renault’s quietly increasing significance in Hong Kong’s electric car world. While Tesla sold its popular Model S (from HK$555,200), Renault won government orders for less flashy electric cars, with fleets of 119 98hp Fluence saloons (HK$349,800) in 2013; 20 Zoes last year; and 15 electric Kangoo vans (HK$389,000) last month.
There are also 10 electric Renaults at the airport; nine owned by Hongkong Electric and a handful held by CLP Power, Coca-Cola and DHL, the dealer says. The Renault e.dams team are also World ePrix Champions, and they begin their title defence against Audi and Jaguar at the inaugural FIA Formula E HKT Hong Kong ePrix, on October 8 and 9.