With the success of the Zoe, Renault has become a leader in electric vehicles in Europe.

Now the French automaker wants to keep the momentum going with an investment of over 1 billion euros to accelerate electric vehicle production in France. expand full story

When Renault started selling the all-electric Zoe in France, it had a controversial scheme that prevented buyers from owning the battery pack. They could either own the car and pay a monthly fee to lease the pack or lease the whole car.

While it is indeed a controversial scheme, it’s undoubtedly a successful one since under it, the Renault Zoe became the most popular all-electric vehicle in France.

But now the French automaker finally lets buyers also own the battery pack starting today. expand full story

The Renault Zoe got its big model year update a year ago with an updated ~200 miles range on a 41 kWh battery pack.

This year it gets a smaller, but still welcomed update with a slightly more powerful electric motor. expand full story

Renault and Nissan have a long-standing marketing partnership with Star Wars and with the release of the latest movie this week, Renault is unveiling a new limited edition ‘ZOE STAR WARS’ electric car, which they actually plan to sell. expand full story

Renault has no problem selling its all-electric Zoe with a 49% sales jump in Europe earlier this year, but it’s about to deploy a bunch more in a single move through a new car-sharing service in Madrid.

The French automaker plans an initial fleet of 500 electric vehicles by October. expand full story

Renault’s Zoe e-Sport RS Concept, a sexy sports version of its successful all-electric Zoe, has been well received since being unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year.

At first, it was just to showcase some of their racing tech developed for the Formula E and put into a more accessible vehicle, but now Renault is considering making it available. expand full story

After Faraday Future’s FF91 beta prototype shattered the previous record for a “production electric car” at Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb last weekend, now several other new electric cars are taking to the hill climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. expand full story

A few weeks ago I wrote about the sales of EV’s in Europe, and one thing stood out like a sore thumb; the success of the Renault Zoe. Now in its second generation, the Zoe is the number one selling EV in Europe with a 14.7% market share. However, when you look at the sales in Renault’s home country, France, the Zoe is simply killing the competition with a 70.1% market share. The little Renault has enjoyed an oversized market share of at least 50% ever since she was first launched in 2013. What makes the Zoe so special and what else can explain its mega success. By coincidence, I happened to be in France last month, so I stopped by a local Renault dealer to get some background on these sales numbers and to have a quick test drive in this number one selling EV.

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As we recently noted when Mercedes-Benz launched its home battery pack, it seems that every other automaker, including Nissan and BMW, started leveraging their electric vehicle battery pack technology for residential energy storage since Tesla launched the Powerwall in 2015.

Now Renault is the latest automaker to do the same. The French automaker announced the new home battery pack system in partnership with Powervault today. expand full story

With the ZOE, Renault pioneered the idea of selling electric vehicles while only leasing the battery pack for a monthly fee. The idea is controversial. While it significantly reduces the entry price, the vehicle is virtually useless without the battery pack and the fee can be expensive.

Nonetheless, the program proved popular since Renault announced that it recently signed its 100,000th battery lease and now those ZOE owners have an interesting opportunity. They can upgrade their battery pack to Renault ‘s new 41 kWh pack released last year. expand full story