In April of this year we reported on the South Korean postal service going Green. The buzzing metropolis of Seoul adopted Renault’s electric Twizy as their last-mile-delivery vehicle. It would seem this phenomenon (of electric commercial fleets) is going global. The Dutch postal company (PostNL) recently announced the replacement of their delivery fleet with Renault’s electric Master Z.E.
First introduced at the Brussels Auto Show, the Master Z.E. is the electric reimagining of the existing light commercial vehicle (LCV) of the same name. Unlike the Twizy, the Master Z.E. is a full-sized panel van. It comes in three load lengths (from 2.6m to 3.7m) and is customizable to a flatbed configuration that can carry 19m³. A 33kW-per-hour battery drives the 57kW motor. After 6 hours of charge, using a 7kW Wallbox, it can achieve a driving range of just about 200km.
Even considering the Netherlands’ relatively small size (only about 41 thousand km² compared to South Africa’s 1.2 million km²) it is obvious the Master Z.E. is meant as a last-mile-delivery vehicle only. And that is what Europe is looking for at the moment. With the diesel-ban promising to restrict access to city centres in the near future, a go-everywhere, do-everything, Green-machine is what’s called for. In fact, the industry volume of electric LCVs in Europe has increased by 24% just since April. And Renault holds 44% of the electric LCV market share there.
The challenge Renault faced was to field a fleet of vehicles that not only had unrestricted access to these European city centres but which also had a practical load capacity. These vehicles had to able to carrying not only letters but also all the things people are ordering online these days. This includes big-ticket items such as washing machines, fridges and power generators. As a final selling point, it had to have a wide enough driving range to satisfy the needs of the average last-mile-delivery company. Renault’s Master Z.E. chalked up a perfect three-out-of-three.
This became apparent last year when Renault lent PostNL a Master Z.E. to test. Following the electric LCVs commercialization, the Dutch postal company was first in line to order 17 of them. PostNL aims to service its entire clientbase (25 city centres) with electric LCVs by 2025.
It seems the term ‘Dutch Masters’ shall henceforth refer to something other than the acclaimed painters of the 17th century. The ranks of Rembrandt, Vermeer and Franz Hals are joined by Ashwani Gupta (Senior Vice President of the Renault-Alliance). Fitting, since Renault’s Master Z.E. is a true masterpiece.
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