The European EV market had over 16,000 registrations last month, up 20% over February 2016, with YTD numbers up 38% year over year (YoY). The market is set to surpass 300,000 units (310,00) by year end. While the EV share is firmly north of the 1% mark, this growth is in no small part due to a refreshed BEV, that’s just gotten a 40 kWh battery.
Renault’s customers are partial to leasing their batteries, an option that very few electric car producers have offered. There are certainly pros and cons to leasing the battery versus buying it as part of the car, but there’s no doubt that ZOE buyers/lessees overwhelmingly choose the former. In fact, 94% of UK ZOE owners leased their battery in 2016. Furthermore, Renault just hit a big milestone, with more ZOE drivers having leased a battery than most brands can claim for total EV sales.
Pricing details for battery pack upgrades to old Renault ZOE units — to be made available later this year — recently surfaced. Overall, the pricing is pretty steep. Though, not unsurprisingly so.
We reported recently on Renault’s tease that an “EV surprise” would be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show, and speculated at the time whether Renault would reveal the electric Renault Twingo ZE … or another fancy concept car that will never make it to production.
Pricing for the Renault Zoe has apparently been slashed in Portugal as part of a new promotional push. The pricing is pretty low, quite attractive. The Renault Zoe ZE 40 Intens Flex (battery leasing option) is advertised at €17,560.
The European EV market had some 19,000 registrations last month, up 31% year over year (YoY), with the Renault Zoe starting the year in the leadership position again.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance has announced that it has stayed at the top of the EV charts globally, especially with Mitsubishi Motors now in the fold. “The Renault-Nissan Alliance, with Mitsubishi Motors, cumulatively sold 424,797 electric vehicles through 2016, making it the undisputed leader in zero-emission mobility,” an announcement stated.
The European EV market had approximately 30,000 registrations last month, down 11% over the same month last year. This sales slip, however, had to do with the incentives-derived sales rush of the last quarter of 2015.
2017 is shaping up to be the year that the affordable EV goes big, with the much anticipated Chevy Bolt and the updated Renault Zoe (with its breakthrough 400 km range) rolling out en masse, as well as the competitive and perhaps widely available Hyundai IONIQ, Toyota Prius Prime, and Chrysler Pacific Hybrid (PHEV). And that’s not even mentioning what is due in the second half of 2017 (hint: Tesla Model 3).
We’ve been rather discretely rolling out cleantech consumer buying guides, which we’ll be continuously updating and improving as time goes on. The first resource page (found at products.cleantechnica.com) covers current electric cars for sale (or soon coming to market) in North America and Europe.
