Renault Zoe | Mark Nichol 2020 Car Review

So, Renault Zoe. How would you introduce the Renault Zoe? You know what? I'm just going to play that Oasis song. I'm sorry. I promise this is going to get better than that, right? I'm going to talk about Carl Vorderman and Disney World and everything. So in car years, the Renault Zoe here is ancient. It was unveiled all the way back in 2009 as an electric version of the Clio, basically, before being released proper in 2012 as a standalone zero emissions runabout to give buyers an alternative to the Nissan Leaf. The Nissan Leaf, of course, being the first electric car. No, it wasn't. That's right, me. The very first electric car was arguably Robert Anderson's electric horseless carriage unveiled all the way back in 1832. But a lot of people do tend to think of the Leaf as the first one because what the Leaf was, was the first car that really brought electric motoring to the masses. Assuming you don't count this funny little fella. That makes the Zoe here one of the first breed of modern electric cars. When this first came out, Renault claimed a 90 mile battery range, but actually it was closer to 60 in reality. Reality in this case meaning mildly chilly weather outside or any time you decided to drive faster than 24 miles per hour. Thankfully, that is no longer the case. Literally miles from the case, in fact. So despite today's Zoe looking almost identical to 2012's car, it's actually getting a lot better with age because it's had loads of work done. And while we're on the subject of Carol Vorderman, let's look at some numbers. But before we get to that, here it comes. Like, subscribe, comment, vanarama.com, etc. I am going to talk about leasing in the specific context of this car in a minute. So we'll crack on for now. So you might look at this badge here on the back of today's Zoe and assume it means so electric as in the Zoe is really electric. But actually it says 50 and denotes the battery pack, which has a 52 kilowatt hour capacity. So actually it might as well say so electric. Anyways, it means the Zoe now has a 245 mile claimed range, which is brilliant. And two other numbers to note are 110 and 135, denoting the choice of horsepower that you now get with a Zoe. That doesn't really affect range either. It just means that one is marginally quicker to 62 miles per hour and has a slightly higher top speed. And actually, because of the way that electric cars deliver that power or that torque, really, you're not actually going to feel a massive difference between the two of them. Both are going to have that same like instant single gear pickup, that responsiveness that you get with an electric car. Another few numbers to note are these, the charging ones. So as standard, the Zoe comes with slow and fast charging capability. Slow being three pin plug it in next to the kettle sort of thing and fast meaning a wall box, which I assume you'll have if you're going to run an electric car, right? You can pay a little bit more again for the combined charging system, aka rapid charging. Now what that does is it gives you a 50 kilowatt DC charging capability and that means that you can get your battery from 0% to 80% in about 45 minutes. Obviously, that's dependent on having that sort of charging capability available to you, like close to where you live. You can, of course, look that up on the internet. And that, the enhanced charging ability, is one of a good few features that distinguishes this, the 2020 Zoe, from a 2012 one that looks really similar. Inside it is significantly improved though, mainly because Renault's removed this big slab of plastic, this sort of dopey looking centre panel, and replaced it with a much better integrated touchscreen. A nice touchscreen it is too. You get a top spec Zoe, it's a proper big portrait orientation thing, but even the lower level ones get a fairly big looking screen as compared to the size of the car in general. And they both use the same software and it is pretty intuitive. Maybe it's a little bit fiddly, some of the sub menus, but it feels modern and it feels feature rich and it looks sharp. And it has a couple of really cool little features, my favourite of which is the range map that you get on the nav. That's a feature that will show you on a map where you can get to based on how much charge you've got at the time. So not only is that a useful feature, but subconsciously it makes you feel better about the whole battery range issue with an electric car that I know some people struggle with. The overarching portrait here is one of a car that looks marginally different on the outside, a little bit better, but could be a completely different car underneath, genuinely. Not least because of the battery pack, which now has more than twice the capacity of the original car's battery. In that sense, at least the Zoe feels like two generations ahead. Imagine you're Sarah Connor, right? And you see the Terminator again coming back to kill you and he still looks like Arnie, but then you find out that he too could now do that shape-shifting molten metal thing now. It's exactly like that. That's why, in my opinion, there's a very strong argument for leasing electric cars now, right? I mean, the battery technology moves so quickly that your best bet with one of these is to lease it for as low a monthly price as possible for a few years and then replace it when the battery technology is much better again. So in numbers terms, and especially range terms, the Zoe feels new and impressive. So you're never going to get the claimed 240-odd miles, right? But that's just standard. None of these things meet their claimed ranges. But based on my experience with the car, which, albeit, it's only been a few days, but I reckon you'll get close to 200 miles out of this. And surely that is enough for this car to work for most people day to day, right? If you think about the progress, that's pretty amazing, right? So when this car came out, if somebody told you then, back in 2012, that before it was replaced, there was going to be a version that did 200 miles, bearing in mind that that one was only claiming about 90, they would have not believed you. But there are a couple of things in the Zoe that do quite starkly remind you that you are indeed driving a Clio-sized small hatchback. So let's do some road testing. I feel like I need a jingle there. It's a road test. So first thing, you can't adjust the seat up and down, which I think is because you are literally sat on top of the battery pack. And it really does feel that way. It feels like you're perched up into this car. It feels like you're sat six inches too high. Now that has its strengths and its weaknesses. So basically, the driving position does just about get away with it, okay? It doesn't cause any fundamental ergonomic problems. So I'm six foot four, right? And as you can see, it's not giving me any hair flattening issues with the roof here. But I do wish that I was sat a bit lower. And what it also means is for me that the mirror is right in the eyeline here. And that's kind of creating a blind spot. That said, what it does give you is that sort of higher SUV-style driving position that a lot of people like. Back visibility, not so much, because as with most modern-ish cars, it's got really thick seat pillars. I don't know why they don't just put a bit of glass in them. There you go. But I think a lot of people will like that. I think a lot of people will like how high up the field they're sat in this car. Another couple of little car traits. So there's no armrest on the centre console, and therefore there's no storage box there. And remember, we're not talking about a 15 grand runabout here. The car I'm driving out there has a list price twice that. And the glove box is less a storage space and more a decorative flap built into the dashboard. There's really not a great deal behind it. Although you do get this little shelf here to compensate for that, which is good. And rear leg and headspace are particularly tight, even for a small hatchback. Note the difference between Renault's official picture and this one that my daughter took of me. The legroom issue is partly to do with seats that are especially thick and spongy. But that does mean that the seats themselves are particularly comfy, as is the whole car in general, actually. With a caveat or two, obviously. So for most of the time when you're using this little fella to get from metaphorical door A to metaphorical door B, it's as emollient and refined as can be. Mainly because, as with all electric cars, there is no internal combustion noise. And the single gear transmission setup means that you don't get any brakes and velocity while the gearbox changes gear. So you don't get that backwards and forwards motion. It's just a stop and go sort of thing. Really smooth, right? On top of that, the suspension setup is fundamentally really soft. Steering is really light. It's all just very chill. Until you get it on a motorway, that is. So let's do that now. So now we're at motorway speed, right? And there is such a vortex of wind noise happening that you do feel like you have to shout at whoever else is in the car. Do you know when it feels like there's too much noise coming out the seal at the top of the window and you keep pulling on the button to make sure that it's closed properly? It's like that. It's not just the driving position that's playing a pretend SUV. The whole car feels like it's perched on top of tall suspension springs. There is loads of body movement, right? So when you take a corner, it's less planted in the sense that road testers traditionally use that term and more planted in the literal sense of being like a tall sunflower being blown around by a strong breeze. And yeah, on top of that, right? It has this slightly weird and contradictory underlying firmness and that is like an oxymoronic feeling that is quite specific to these slightly older electric cars. They move around a lot, but then you get this like judder through the steering wheel in the seat. It's just mild, but it's definitely there. I don't really want to spend too much time on how this thing corners because it's churlish to have a go at it for not being a hot hatch. That's clearly not what it is. It just is worth mentioning that it rolls an awful lot. It's not just the body roll that makes it feel like an SUV. It is actually the fact that on a more basic level, you just can't really feel what's happening. It's in stark contrast to the way that the Clio is set up. That's for sure. One quirky thing that I do really like about this car though is that it has sound augmentation at lower speeds. All right, so I've opened the window so you can hear this, right? Can you hear that? So that is to tell people in the vicinity that you're around, so you don't run them over. It's a really lazy analogy, right? But I'm going to do it anyway. It does have a back-to-the-future feel about it. So why don't you make like a tree and get out of here? I also like how some of the versions get recycled trim. It's a bit vegan, a bit trendy, but like mid-level cars onwards get recycled fabric for the seats. And for this bit of the door cards down here, particularly the elbow rest. I was driving this the other day, right? I had a t-shirt on and I noticed that it was really rubbing my elbow. Then I looked and there's this white line here and I realized that what that is, there's like 2,000 miles worth of elbow skin. Disgusting! They can make a feature of that though if they wanted. It's like an elbow exfoliator. It performs smoothly elsewhere too. So in 2012, it got a five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP. Now the test is stricter now and it's not clear whether it would still get a five-star rating, but that is a very, very good score. And the boot's fine, it's spacious enough. And actually, overall, this is a car that is just about big enough to pass for a family car if you've got smaller kids, just. And if you get any car from mid-spec up, which in this case is called Iconic, then it has all the basic comfort and style features sorted. So you get alloys, aircon, digital instrument display, touchscreen. Although it's worth mentioning that if you get a basic car called Play, it's on plastic wheel trims. Sick! Generally, right, this is one of those cars that doesn't offer much excitement beyond the novelty of it being an electric car, which is still a novelty even for people like me that have driven a lot of these things. But what it does give you is a solid, pretty spacious, pretty well-equipped, usually comfortable, and most importantly, range anxiety alleviating electric car experience. Now personally, I would say that if you're sold on the idea of getting an electric car, but you need more space, then I would look at an MG ZS EV, which will give you significantly more interior space for not that much more money. And if you want a more exciting driving experience with a much plusher cabin, to be honest, then there's the Mini Electric now. Review coming soon, look out for that. But as a very reasonably priced entry into leasing an electric car, then this old girl is still one of the best. Well worth a look. And we're done. Thanks for watching. Please subscribe to the channel. Please watch our other stuff. And for brilliant leasing deals on any electric car, or any car, basically, go to vanorama.com. I'll see you soon. Cheers. Bye. Robert Anderson's electric horseless cabbage... Horseless cabbage. I'm going mad.