Seven years on from its unveiling back in 2012, the Renault Zoe has received its biggest overhaul yet, keeping abreast with the advancing electric opposition. But while the French carmaker insists it’s an all-new model, in reality this is more of a thorough facelift – albeit with a substantial reengineering under the skin.
As you can see, the curvaceous body remains pretty much unchanged, with much of the visual tweaks appearing at the front of the car. The headlights, which flow into the grille and the large diamond logo, are larger – a design that was previewed by the e-Sport Concept from 2017 – and feature full-LED lighting as standard, incorporating Renault’s signature C-shaped daytime running light graphic.
The bonnet has also been subtly reprofiled with two additional strakes, while the front bumper has been made more aggressive, gaining a downturned central air intake and separate inlets surrounding the chromed-trimmed fog lights. The clear tail lights are also full LED and feature linear light strips.
Bigger changes can be found on the inside, where you’ll find a redesigned dashboard with soft-touch materials to match the seat upholstery. Front and centre of this dashboard is a new standard-fit 10-inch portrait-format touchscreen paired to a new version of Renault’s Easy Link infotainment system. There’s also a larger full-colour instrument display.
There’s also a revised centre console sporting twice as much storage space and a new electronic gearlever and parking brake, along with a wireless smartphone charger, twin USB ports at the front and rear and redesigned climate controls with chrome dials and an acoustic glass windscreen for improved refinement. A new upholstery option is also being offered, made from 100% recycled fabric.
Despite the same old, same old body, Renault says that it has performed a significant redesign of the underlying platform, tweaking the chassis and making space for a new electric motor and battery. As the name suggests, the R135 motor produces 100 kW (135 PS) and 245 Nm of torque, 20 kW (25 PS) and 20 Nm more than the R110 motor that was introduced last year, and which still remains on sale.
The new powertrain is significantly more muscular than the one that came before, dropping the zero-to-100 km/h sprint time below the 10 second mark; it also gets from 80 to 120 km/h in 7.1 seconds, 2.2 seconds faster than the R110. The top speed has also been increased by five kilometres per hour, to 140 km/h.
Despite the extra power, there’s now increased range thanks to the Z.E. 50 battery. The 52 kWh lithium-ion unit delivers 390 km range on the WLTP cycle, an increase of 190 km from last year’s model and a far cry from the original Zoe’s 150 km. The charging socket at the front of the car, hidden beneath the diamond logo, also features a new Combined Charging System (CCS) port that supports 50 kW of DC charging.
Renault claims that the Zoe can be fully charged through a 7 kW wallbox in nine hours and 25 minutes, and can recover around 150 km of range through a 50 kW DC fast charging station in just 30 minutes. The new Zoe also gets a new B mode with increased kinetic energy recovery that slows the car down significantly upon lifting off the throttle, allowing for one-pedal driving.
The wholesale rejuvenation of the Zoe also allows for the fitment of a range of new safety features, including autonomous emergency braking, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, traffic sign recognition, auto high beam and an Easy Park Assist system.
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
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- 2019 – Nouvelle Renault ZOE
This European beauty is very eye-catching but I don’t want to buy it. I am a Patriotic Malaysian and I buy Barang Buatan Malaysia. 5 years ago, I was so excited to see the game changing Proton Iriz EV concept and waiting for it to release. Unfortunately until today, the Iriz EV already game over as Proton never launched it, dissapoints many fans
Everybody is moving towards EV. Infact, Europe will be fully EV by 2040. Not long more. That is just 20 years more.
The car companies sleeping and have no EV, pls wake up. You say you want to export to the world, how to export to the world when whole world is EV and you are the only petrol engined producer?
Proton paling malu. Dulu tunjuk Iriz EV tapi sekarang pergi mana?
The troll is talking to himself again.
The desperation of his folly here only tells me that Proton is moving at right direction and the results are coming in fast & furious. Kipidap Proton!
Proton is moving in the right direction only after China came to help. We must thank China for their brains
Sure, we are grateful to China but so is Sweden (for saving Volvo) and Germany (for saving SMART). No need to be ashamed about it when these two bigger, richer, more industrially advanced, First World countries with much longer automotive background have been saved by China.
The EDITOR guy say that it will be mass produced. Hello, where is it lah? I don’t want to wait for so long
This is one thing i really wish would stop getting stated.
We, consumers, don’t get to say what is to be developed or what is not to be developed. This is the developers job, not us, so for anyone to say otherwise: No, you don’t get to.
We, consumers, don’t get a say on how much it cost to manufacture anything, or how much R&D goes into a product.
We, consumers, don’t get a say in what somethings naming is.
We, consumers, don’t get a say if a product will be released or not released.
We, consumers, don’t get a say in how much something is being sold for, or at what tier. If we don’t like something, don’t buy it.
The only thing we, consumers, get a say in is what we spend money on. That is it. Nothing else. To claim anything else on ANY company is pure nonsense. Buy it, or don’t buy it, but stop claiming heresay and opinions as though they are fact.
The resident troll only know to copy and paste the same comment. Just look at any article about EV, he will give the same BS about Iriz EV and then replied by his dupes supporting his own comment. Funny and pathetic at the same time.
Renault Zoe here RM145k only = Nissan Leaf.
Road tax cheap?compare to an 1.0cc petrol
Someone keeps demanding for local EV car but later complains on the high price of replacement battery. He should make his own EV car that runs on cheap AA batteries.