Renault Zoe Sales Shoot Up In France Following Gas/Diesel Shortages & Clever Ads
Originally published on EV Obsession.
A number of recent strikes in France have done damage (presumably, temporary damage) to the country’s oil industry, and caused a number of gas and diesel shortages. These recent fuel-availability disruptions have apparently driven increased interest in electric vehicles — interesting, if unsurprising.
A number of prominent auto manufacturers have also begun using the disruptions as a sales opportunity for their electric offerings — with new advertising campaigns making direct mention of the availability problems.
This tweet from Citroen pushing its electric vehicles is a good example (which reads: “Fed up with queuing? Here’s a solution”):
Another one posted by Renault stated bluntly: “In France, we don’t have any more petrol but we do have Zoe.”
Green Car Reports provides more:
The campaign led to a 50% increase in calls from consumers for information about the Zoe, Renault said. The Zoe was the best-selling electric car in Europe in 2015, but this year it’s faced stiffer competition from the Nissan Leaf, made by Renault’s Japanese alliance partner.
…Strikes at oil refineries that are affecting fuel production were called last week in response to new labor laws that reportedly make it easier for employers to fire workers, and reduce overtime pay. Workers in the nuclear-power industry and public transportation are also striking to protest the new laws.
The legislation was enacted earlier this month in a move that bypassed the French parliament; officials say the changes will make France a more attractive place for businesses, and boost economic growth. Labor unions are demanding the withdrawal of the new rules, and are threatening further strikes.
Notably, the government of France also currently offers substantial incentives to electric vehicle buyers — another selling point after initial interest is stoked by the fuel-shortage situation.
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Yesterday Norway band the sale of gasoline and diesel at 2025 and after. Let us hope that France does the same and that Canada after the fire they had at least moves in that direction.
It’s banning new FF vehicles rather than actual petrol/diesel!!
Still good though. The whole world should do this and bump up FF vehicle taxes sky high in the mean time, with a citizen dividend.
Word is that it may not actually be a ban but a target of 100% EVs. But think a ban could likely be on order, and if it isn’t, could be in a few years once the market competitiveness of EVs becomes more clear and people become less tolerant of pollution and climate change.
http://cleantechnica.com/2016/06/04/norway-netherlands-austria-india-verge-banning-gas-cars/
Good argument. Oil refinery workers and truck drivers can strike whenever they please, but power plant workers – especially in the nuclear sector – face much tighter constraints on their ability to strike. Electricity supply can go down during strikes, but it is never cut off (at least in France).
In the nuclear sector, some employees (notably those working in safety critical parts of the plant) can never strike, and even the other employees face requirements such as a requirement to keep providing minimal service.
And of course, most renewable power plants operate completely autonomously. The worst that can happen is that scheduled maintenance is delayed by a few days.
Strikebreakers and anti-unionists of this world, unite! Get an EV!
Just returned from a trip through Normandy (from Amsterdam through Lille, Amiens, Rouan, Bayeux). Normandy is void of superchargers, fortunately two destination chargers helped us through pour trip.. The Tesla MS was a point of attention wherever we stopped, something like Holland three yeas ago. People were quite curious but their questions were really basic. Long distance travel in France is quite good in north to south direction but Normandy and Bretagne are quite forgotten. The charging market is quite underdeveloped – very fragmented, non standadized ( you need plenty of membership cards and thees are often available only locally, stll some use of french specific cables, but Mennekes is slowly becoming more available, and openng times areoften limited to shopping hours).
There is stil quite a lot to do in France to get electric car driving up to a speed.
well the ad is for Peugeot-Citroen, which is competitor with Renault. Renault sells the Zoe whereas Peugeot sells the ION
Indeed… corrected the text.