Madrid Deploying 500 Renault Zoe EVs This Month Via Zity Carsharing Service

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Madrid, Spain, will soon be the site of a 500-strong fleet of Renault Zoe EVs as part of the launch of a new carsharing service named ZITY by the operator Ferrovial, an email sent to CleanTechnica has revealed.

The new ZITY carsharing service, it should be noted, is actually the result of a collaboration between the aforementioned operator Ferrovial and Renault itself. The new service will cover a fair portion of Madrid, hence the relatively numerous 500-strong fleet.

The email noted that Madrid will serve as a good site for a new carsharing service since the city is home to the highest daily carsharing utilization rates in Europe and the city’s growing air pollution problems have led to some decent incentives for electric vehicle (EV) use.

Parking for electric vehicles, for instance, is often free in Madrid. EVs are also granted access to the city center even when internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle access is restricted because of high levels of air pollution.

Madrid is also, it’s worth remembering, gearing up to ban ICE vehicles from the “hyper-center” of the city in 2018 (seemingly, from the most walkable parts of the city).

The emailed press release provides more information: “The ZOEs in the scheme benefit from RIDECELL technology with a GSM smartphone connection completed by a Bluetooth link. That means the ZOE can be contacted even in places where connectivity is poor, such as underground car parks, and the time taken for the vehicles to respond to smartphone instructions sent by customers is reduced. RIDECELL also lets customers lock and unlock the cars using their smartphones.”

The 500 Renault Zoe EVs to be used in the new ZITY carsharing service will be the new ones, featuring the R90 motor and the ZE 40 battery — allowing for around 186 miles of real-world range during the summer and 124 miles during the winter in cold regions (not Madrid, that is).

So, all things considered, the Renault Zoes being utilized in the ZITY service are likely to perform quite well — and may well nab Renault a number of new Zoe buyers based on positive experiences using them as part of the new service.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre