New Renault Electric Vehicle
Z.E. stands for Zero Emissions and is the Renault designation for a fully electric vehicle, i.e. no exhaust pipe. Renault is big on electric vehicles, and their plans for the near future are becoming clearer.
It is well known that the company plans to offer eight fully electric models by 2022. At the moment Renault has six battery electric vehicles (BEV): The Zoe, Kangoo Z.E., Master Z.E., Twizy as well as the City K-ZE, which was initially intended for the Chinese market, and the Renault Samsung SM3 Z.E., the South Korean version of the Fluence Z.E. The Fluence Z.E was the first production BEV offered by the company, and this has since been discontinued.
One of the new BEVs will be the next generation Twingo Z.E., pitched just below the Zoe Z.E. Interestingly, the Twingo is listed as a Z.E. only, so most likely it will not have a non-BEV option.
The other BEV appears to be the K- Z.E. subcompact crossover just introduced in China, but apparently destined for global markets. The K- Z.E.is a small SUV-like car with a 33kW motor, so not very powerful. It seems to have fast DC-charging capacity, but there are no details on this yet. The big thing about this small car is that it is so affordable. There is plenty of sub-$10 000 cars available in China, but the people who would buy there could never afford an electric car. Now they can, with the entry-level K- Z.E. starting at less than $9 000. The US$ price has been converted from the Chinese yuan to give it clearer context, but keep in mind that BEVs are subsidized by the government in China.
In addition to the Z.E.models, Renault will be introducing new hybrid and plug-in hybrid models. These, as well as the BEVs, will share common platforms and components through the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance’s Common Module Family. The CMF allows the three partners to share development and manufacturing costs, including batteries for the electrified models.
As Renault makes the switch to more electric vehicles, it will reduce its diesel range by 50% and offer only one diesel engine instead of its current three.
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