Family Car Review: Renault Zoe Electric Car

When most parents hear ‘electric car’ they think to themselves ‘eh, nice idea, but not for my family, because there’s no way I’m spending my life charging one’. Well, fair point. Electric cars sold on the Irish market to date have been generally short of the space a family needs, take ages to charge, and run out of juice quicker than a remote control toy on Christmas day. Let’s face it – that’s too much grief for a busy Mum. When Renault asked us to test its all new electric ‘Zoe’ and promised us it was different, we were sceptical. Whisper it though, it seems like they are right...

Let’s get the housekeeping out of the way first. The Zoe is fully battery powered. It can run for up to 200km on a full charge, although this will vary depending on your driving style and if you use things like the air con regularly. In reality most city Mum’s will only need to charge it a couple of times a week.You have three charging options. Firstly, you can run a plug out to the car from your house. Charging this way takes about eight hours. Alternatively, the ESB will install a dedicated charge point on your driveway, to which you can hook the car up overnight and charge without opening house windows or doors. There are also hundreds of ‘fast charge’ points around Ireland like in petrol stations where you can charge your Zoe to 80% power in 30 minutes.

Any Mum that secretly plays with their kids remote control car when they are in school will love driving the Zoe. It’s a doddle to drive. You select ‘drive’ with the gear lever, and the car accelerates powerfully and instantly. It is a remarkable experience driving a car which makes no engine noise. You can monitor your power usage and remaining battery life through the digital displays on the dashboard.

While leg room in the rear will be tight for full sized adults, two teenagers and a smaller child will fit just fine and will get a good view out the windows from the high-set rear bench. The interior is totally different to mainstream cars today – bright, modern and really cool. The materials are not exactly a child friendly colour, but the good news is they wipe clean easily, so stick a pack of antiseptic wipes in the glove box for after the kids have a picnic during the journey and you will be fine.

Mum’s will love the airy and spacious feel of the driver’s seat – it feels very like a small people carrier up front and not at all cramped. The tablet style touch screen allows you pair your phone to play music, and there’s an easy to use sat nav too, so there’s no need to carry one around in your bag. There are virtually no buttons to get used to – most controls are handled through the massive colour screen.

So, what about money? Starting at just €17,490 and loaded with extras it is not much dearer than buying a Ford Fiesta, so the purchase price is family friendly. Running costs are good too, €120 per year to tax and about €3 to charge the car for 200kilometres of driving, way cheaper than buying petrol or diesel. The drawback though is that you have to rent the batteries for the Zoe from Renault, the fee for them is €49 per month for three years – after that you are deemed to ‘own’ the batteries and the fee stops. This decreases the savings over a traditional petrol or diesel car for the first while. Mum’s who drive 15,000km per year can still expect to make a saving even with this cost factored in though

Is there loads of storage space?

The boot is an impressive size for a small car – at 338 litres it is surprisingly bigger than that of a Ford Focus. As the car sits high off the ground you don’t have to bend as far down to lift things in and out. Fold the rear seats flat and you will fit in a few bikes for a trip to the park, too. There’s a deep cubby in front of the gear lever, perfect for a mobile phone and house keys, and a shelf under the glove box so your passenger can store their bits and bobs too.

Is it baby friendly?

The airy cabin extends to the rear, the roof is more than tall enough for you to lift a baby seat in and out without hitting your head. Your buggy will fit in the boot with room for some shopping left over, and the front seat is not at all cramped if you would rather your baby rode up front with you.

Is parking easy?

It’s a doddle, tailor made for Mum’s with kids to ferry and fetch from busy schools. The high driving position means you can see what’s around you easily, and the back of the car hardly protrudes at all out past the window, so there is no risk of misjudging how long it is. You don’t see as much out of the two rear corners as in some cars though, so the parking sensors fitted as standard on our test car come in handy.

What about safety?

Renault has an excellent record in terms of safety, no surprise to hear the Zoe was awarded the full five stars in the Euro NCAP safety test, and an 80% child safety rating. There are three ISOFIX child seat points, two in the rear and one in the front passenger seat. A speed limiter is also fitted, so you can prevent yourself from driving over a certain speed at all times.

Verdict:

Thumbs Up:

Runs for about 200km on one charge

Family friendly storage space

Cheap purchase price and charging costs

Great fun to drive

Thumbs down

Rear seats a little short on legroom

Batteries cost €49 per month to rent

Mummypages Ratings:

Baby friendliness: 4/5

Safety: 4/5