Our new Zoe

[LouB]

Yesterday I drove our new Zoe ZE40 home from the dealers. Got to drive at freeway speeds for part of the 62 km trip. Although acceleration above 70 kph was pretty sluggish, once it got to 110kph it held speed quite well. It's blue, and the best part is that my wife chose the colour, so I can't be blamed for it .

I asked the salesperson (Sydney City Renault) how many they had sold, but he was being a little cagey and would only say that he had personally sold 3 so far.

Not exactly selling like the hot-cakes that another salesperson gushed before I had signed on the dotted line.

All in all, quite happy with the vehicle, if not the price.

Cheers
Lou

[TomZoe]

It’s a lovely car:) I haven’t found mine sluggish when I floor it!

When I went to that dealership in March the older salesman said they couldn’t get enough as water companies and power companies were snapping them up!

[LouB]

Hi Tom,

Maybe it was just me. I probably need to improve my technique and exercise my lead-foot .

It would be interesting to discover just how many Zoes have landed in Australia and how many have been sold to fleet buyers and to private individuals.

When the Nissan Leaf first became available back in 2011-2012 there were claims that it too was selling very well. Vehicles from the same production batch were still being sold some four years later.

I just hope that the take up of EVs is better this time around. Some Government support would be nice too.

Cheers
Lou

[doggy]

Hi Lou, hopefully you are not using Eco mode.
Might be useful if the battery was almost exhausted but otherwise unnecessary.
We are still averaging around 13.5kWHr/100km and delighted with the car (apart from the absence of Z.E. connected services).
They sold 8 Zoes in Australia in June but it has almost certainly slowed since then.
Cheers,
Dave

[Bryce]

Hi Lou - I believe a batch of around 50 2017 R90s were sent to Australia. Best guess is that about half to 2/3rds of them are now sold.

Ditto re Eco mode - my test drive initially seemed quite sluggish and I was quite disappointed - till I discovered the dealer had left it in Eco. Went much better on my freeway test run after that!

Cheers
Bryce

[TomZoe]

Yes - leadfooting fine and I love burning off big 4 wheel drives that pull up in left (or right) lane at lights thinking they will be in front - the 0-40km/hr is really
Good in my view!

[LouB]

I wasn't using Eco mode. In fact, I have mentally relegated that button to the same use that fighter pilots have for the ejector lever. Only for Last Resort.

What I meant to say is that acceleration is excellent from 0 - 70 kph but tapers off substantially between 70 - 110 kph. That is: in comparison to our latest ICE vehicles.
Mind you, the only time I need to accelerate quickly, in this higher range, is when merging from an on-ramp with speeding freeway traffic.

13.5kWHr/100km is very good. From specs, I guesstimated something like 14 - 15 kWHr/100km. But did not employ any correction factor for losses. Once we get up enough ks I'll be able to see how this particular EV performs.

If 50 2017 R90s were available to Australian buyers, and more than half have been sold, then they seem to be going OK. Renault Australia doesn't appear to have been heavily pushing them with advertising yet. If they do sell out fairly rapidly, it's then more likely that Renault will bring in more. That could be significant for EV take-up in this country.

Cheers
Lou

[reecho]

39 Zoe and 8 Kangoo ZE have been sold. Minus the demo cars spread around the country the first batch is as good as gone...

[TomZoe]

So we might get the bigger engine Zoes now coming into the UK?

[PiMan]

Renault Australia doesn't appear to have been heavily pushing them with advertising yet.

I don't watch TV and so don't know if they've been advertising there or not, but I have heard at least one ad for Renault EVs on the radio. So its more than nothing, although still less than many other cars, and it is possible that it was just Essendon Renault doing ad.

[doggy]

Yes, I would expect the R110 (larger motor) car once the first batch is gone. However Renault suggested to me that it might still be the R90. The choice of colours must be getting smaller! My understanding is that the Q90 and R110 are the vehicles now shipping in Europe and more recently the UK. It would be interesting to know if anyone here has ordered the Life model which is now out of stock here and the wait time is 6months. 6 months is also the wait time in the UK due to high demand.

Certainly the R90 is better than most other ICE cars 0-60 and a little slower 80-110. However, we have found it very acceptable over all. We are planning a couple of much longer trips into the country so those will be interesting. I must say that the handling has been better than I expected.

Our Council is talking of replacing ALL their passenger vehicles with EVs and Zoe is one they are considering.

Regds,
Dave

[TomZoe]

Not quite on point but here it is:

https://www.theage.com.au/business/the- ... 506by.html