Exclusive: Renault NZ explains why it has had to curtail sale of its only electric car and lends insight into potential future alternates.

PULLING its landmark electric hatchback just when the sector has finally revved up is a disappointment Renault New Zealand says it had no choice but to cop – yet it hasn’t given up on battery power play.

Conceivable eventual substitutes for the Zoe (above), abruptly pulled from sale recently purely as result of a damning ‘zero stars’ crash test judgement specific to the latest ZE50 format car, are another compact hatch and a medium crossover.

The first is the modern reinterpretation of the Renault 5, a famous 1990s’ design, and the latter, which could be more immediately available, is the Megane e-Tech Electric, the brand’s first electric car since Zoe.

Right-hand drive production of the Megane e-Tech Electric was expected to begin around July, but the programme has been hindered by the semiconductor shortage and other factors. The Five is still cited for 2025.

Meantime, the local operator is also looking at hybrid and plug-in hybrid choices, some also on the CMF-EV platform Renault has developed with Nissan.

Those definitely include a version of the compact Arkana presented to media yesterday in pure 1.3 litre petrol form. That coupe crossover sits below the Koleos medium sports utility, which like Arkana is built in South Korea and now stands as the local distributor’s only other mainstream passenger car as the budget Duster has also gone and the compact, from-France Captur has proven challenging to pin down.

Also possible is a plug-in edition of the current Megane hatch, Kiwis presently only know in its RS performance pedigree. Again, though, nothing is immediately available.

Renault NZ will not say how it feels about not having any EV choice for the immediate future, however it’s clear that losing Zoe was a shock – in all likelihood, the model was expected to build up interest in Renault electric tech until the new cars were ready.

But everything went wrong with the ‘right car at the right time’ when European NCAP dropped its bombshell in the second week of December.

Local boss Sam Waller says the zero stars score – the worst result an NCAP can deliver - left his operation with no option but to drop the ZE50 Zoe, which it had only released in November as a replacement for the ZE40 line.

“Obviously safety is essential for Renault … an NCAP score of zero made us relook at that model.

“We made the decision, for our customers, and we stand by that.”

(Renault NZ has subsequently elaborated on that comment, saying “we made the decision with customers in mind but there were multiple factors that lead to the business decision at the end of the day.”)

Renault NZ has steered clear of going into how many customers were lined up for ZE50. Waller also declined to comment about what kind of effort had been intended to get it into fleet use, where EV acceptance has stepped up, thanks to influences including Government policy and the Clean Car rebate.

It acknowledges fleets now commonly insist on candidates having three stars or better. 

“I’m not going to go into those details. This happened, we’ve dealt with it. We’ve moved on. It’s business as usual for us as a brand.”

Just a handful of cars were here when the decision was made, Waller said. He would not say if others had been built or were en route and did not want to comment about the local office’s reaction when the assessment came out.

While this leaves Renault with no electric car at an important period, he asserted all is not lost and the NZ operation remains as committed as the parent brand to realising a battery-involved future, with commercials as well as passenger cars.

“The future is extremely bright for Renault and we are really excited by the future product, that we will announce to the market in coming months.”

Will Kiwis see another fully electric Renault?

“Absolutely. I’m not going to speculate on what it is but there is a very exciting product line-up coming. We will communicate to the market when the time is right and when we have clarity from the factory.”

Already sold in Europe, the Arkana hybrid marries a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, two electric motors and a 1.2kWh battery pack, which bumps up power and cuts economy to 4.9 litres per 100km, against 6.1 litres per 100km for the fully petrol cars.

Megane e-Tech is front-derive, single motor and offers a choice of two power outputs, 96kW and 160kW, and two battery sizes, 40kWh and 60kWh. WLTP ranges are 300km and 470km respectively, with the quickest variant able to achieve 0-100kmh in 7.4 seconds. With 130kW DC charging, the battery can replenish from 15 percent to 80 percent in 30 minutes.

Waller sees potential. “New Zealand is going toward low-emission vehicles, EVs will be the future of this brand and when they become available to us, we will be very excited.”

There does not appear to be an electrified plan for the Koleos, which overseas’ reports speculate won’t be continued when the current generation ends. Waller had nothing to add to that.

Zoe first hit the scene in 2012 and that original format ZE40 has been available in NZ as a new car since around 2015, at one time being the only new EV apart from the Nissan Leaf.

Like Leaf, it has also landed as a used import product and achieved greater popularity that way. Renault NZ was unable to say how many it had sold new, but cited that the model has a small but loyal fanbase.

Renault NZ had hoped to enjoy a big lift in profile and sales with the ZE50 update, which with a 50kWh battery pack and a rated range of 395 kilometres was a big step from the original’s 41kWh battery and claimed 300km.

The distributor slightly sharpened the price and the car attracted the Clean Car rebate, which sliced almost $9000 from the recommended retail.

But then came the damning crash test result, which has been controversial, given the 2022 car was an update of the original that, in 2013, achieved highest possible score, five stars, from European NCAP.

However, back then, the test was less tough. The regime revised in 2019.

In the latest test, the ZE50 was criticised for lacking head airbags. The version used for testing in Europe was in a base specification that lacked automated emergency braking, vital for a decent score.

When the revised rating came out, Renault’s NZ’s parent, Global Motors NZ, pointed out that the ZE50 Zoe in NZ-market spec included AEB.

Because of that, it then argued, the model here was sufficiently different to the version that was crash-tested that it should not considered identical.

Renault, meantime, is presently going through the process of spinning off its electric car business into a separate company in 2023, in hopes of catching up with Tesla and Volkswagen.

The French say that the new EV spin-off could bring on board 10,000 new employees by 2023. It is studying the possibility of combining its combustion engine and hybrid engine and transmission activities outside of France. The EV business would be kept in France, potentially under the brand name Mobilize.