Renault

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.
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Here’s something you don’t see every day: an electric autonomous rideshare concept car from a major automaker.  Oh wait, nevermind, it’s the Geneva Auto Show.  That’s exactly what you see every day.

But this one, Renault’s newest effort, doesn’t seem like it’s just more-of-the-same.  While it’s obviously a concept car, with extra emphasis on “concept,” it truly embraces that concept nature and steps away from the realm of “normal” and into a totally different driving future which actually looks fairly palatable, and even realistic.

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After embracing electric vehicles, Renault has also launched its own new energy subsidiary to develop energy storage and grid products.

The French automaker is now combining both efforts to help create a “smart electric island” with electric vehicles, V2G, and energy storage.
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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.
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It can be difficult for dealerships to sell both electric cars and gas-powered vehicles at the same time since the strengths of one are often the weaknesses of the other. That’s partly why Tesla decided to bypass the dealership model and operate it.

Now Renault is going to try the same with its own electric car-only store in Europe.
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Europe is starting to get more than its fair share of electric car fast-charging networks – making the rest of the EV world jealous and now we learn of again a new one as French automaker Renault announces its backing of the project.
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The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China’s mobility giant Didi, also known as “China’s Uber”, to “explore future business cooperation on a new electric vehicle car-sharing program” in China.
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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.
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Renault claims to be “making history” with the new working prototype of its electric and autonomous vehicle SYMBIOZ. 
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The Nissan-Renault Alliance has been an early leader in electrification with the Leaf and the Zoe, but they have been taking their sweet time to release new models, which resulted in their lead slowly slipping away.

Now they are preparing an important electric car push with several new models, as discussed by CEO and Chairman Carlos Ghosn in a new interview.
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China is getting all the EVs. Renault announces today its product plan for the Dongfeng Renault Automotive Company (DRAC), its Chinese joint-venture with Dongfeng, and confirmed that 3 new electric vehicles will join its lineup by 2022.
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Today, Renault announced today that it is launching its own new energy subsidiary to develop grid products. The French automaker says that ‘Renault Energy Services’ will function “much like a start-up” working with other energy companies.
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After unveiling their electric car plans for the Renault, Nissan & Mitsubishi alliance last month, Renault Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn now unveils more specific plans just for the French automaker, which will surprisingly lead the all-electric vehicle push of the alliance.
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On the sidelines of the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, several major automakers made announcements about their electric car efforts.

The Renault, Nissan & Mitsubishi alliance wasn’t among them, but they now also announce new plans as part of their 2022 synergy strategy.
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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.
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Renault technically owns a lot of electric car battery packs thanks to its Zoe program under which they sell the actual car, but they lease the battery pack for a monthly fee.

Now they are using some of those used battery packs to power electric vehicle charging stations. 
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Yet another major automaker, the Renault-Nissan Alliance, announces an effort to produce electric vehicles in China following the country’s aggressive goals to electrify its rapidly growing fleet.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, alternative fuel vehicles (AFV’s) in the Europe Union are off to a very strong start in the first quarter of this year, increasing their numbers sold by 37.6% to 212,945 vehicles.

Hybrid vehicles (HEV) showed the biggest growth with 61.2% versus the same period last year, now counting 111,006 units. Electrically chargeable vehicles (ECV = BEV and plug-in hybrids) grew with 29.9% from 36,322 units sold in Q1, 2016 to 47,196 units in Q1, 2017. This includes 49% growth for “battery-only” (BEV’s) to 24,592 units sold and 13% growth for the plug-in hybrids (21,644 units). The U.S. market showed a similar growth of 49% for electric car sales to 40,700 units sold in the first quarter according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The American car market is about 16% larger.

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