New Renault Zoe – Nyland review [YouTube]

Although automotive journalists are just getting to know the new Renault Zoe ZE 50, select Renault dealerships have already had the opportunity to present the model to [potential] customers. He was among them reliable Bjorn Nyland, who thoroughly tested the car. Here's his review of the 2020 kWh Renault Zoe (52) in our synopsis.

Before moving on to the merits, let us recall what kind of car we will talk about.

Renault Zoe ZE 50 - specifications

The Renault Zoe is a B-segment car, so it competes directly with the Opel Corsa-e, BMW i3 or Peugeot e-208. The second generation of the model, designated Renault Zoe ZE 50, is equipped with Battery 52 kWh (useful capacity), i.e. more than competitors. The car also has front-wheel drive. R135 100 kW engine (136 hp, but the manufacturer says 135 hp) and the declared 395 km WLTP, which should translate into approximately 330-340 kilometers in real range.

The charging power looks weaker because it is only 50 kW at direct current (DC), but we also have the option to use up to 22 kW at alternating current (AC). No other car sold today allows this power to be drawn from a conventional charger.

Renault Zoe ZE 50 review – the right detail

The Renault Zoe in the trim youtuber tested had a new red paint job and was equipped with PureVision all-LED headlights.

The charging port was still under the Renault symbol on the front. Unlike the Kia e-Niro or the Hyundai Kona Electric, it is equipped with a durable rubber gasket - this may have been resolved after complaints from Norwegian buyers of Hyundai-Kia cars, whose doors were covered with snow, ice and frozen to the body. They had to be tapped hard so that the car could be charged.

Renault Zoe (2020) for the first time in the history of the model is equipped with a CCS charging port. Old generations of cars - the Zoe and Zoe ZE 40 - only had a type 2 socket (minus the two thickest pins at the bottom) and supported up to 22/43kW with AC charging (c) Bjorn Nyland / YouTube

The interior of the car is still covered with hard plastic, but part of the surface is covered with additional fabric, which is nice to look at and quite soft to the touch. This is a good move: many of our Readers, potential buyers of the previous generation Renault Zoe, said that they were intimidated by the interior appearance and the feeling of cheap plastic, which contrasts quite strongly with the fact that the car would have to be paid around 140 PLN.

There is enough space in the front for a person with a height of 1,8-1,85 meters. For people taller, it is also suitable for adjusting the seat (without electrical adjustment, only manually), but then it will be tightly behind them.

People taller than 180 cm should not sit in the back seat because they will feel constricted in the cramped conditions:

The screen inside is positioned vertically - i.e. Tesla Model S / X style - and the video shows that this arrangement works. The interface is fast and the map responds with little delay, which is a really big achievement compared to the rest of the automotive world. However, any operations, including location search or route recalculation, are delayed.

A huge plus is the range of the “cloud” on a single charge, which seems to take into account the terrain and the presence of roads. The downside is that during the Nyland test, the screen freezes (freezes) for no reason when you try to navigate to the selected point.

On your first trip Renault Zoe ZE 50, 85 percent charged, has a range of 299 kilometers. This would mean that 100 percent of the battery capacity should allow you to drive about 350 kilometers - with some optimism in the car's algorithms, this figure agrees very well with the calculations at the beginning of the article.

In B (energy saving) mode, the car accelerates quite slowly, but the regenerative braking is not too strong, which surprised Bjorn Nyland a little, as he expected a stronger recovery. The meter shows that Zoe generates a maximum power of -20 kW from the wheels. Only when the battery is more discharged does the recovery reach -30 kW, and after pressing the brake pedal - almost -50 kW (according to the meter: "- 48 kW").

The Renault Zoe ZE 50 does not have active cruise control, which could adjust the vehicle's speed based on the vehicles in front. This is a small surprise, given the promises made during the presentation of the Renault Symbioz. The vehicle is equipped with a lane keeping system, however this causes the vehicle to “bounce” off the sidelines.

When driving "I try to keep 120 km / h", that is, at highway speeds, having driven 99,3 km, the car consumes 50 percent of the stored energy (67-> 17 percent). After stopping, the consumption indicated by the vehicle was 21,5 kWh / 100 km (215 Wh / km). It means that a fully charged battery should be able to travel about 200-250 kilometers at highway speeds.

After connecting to the Ionita charging station, the fans were activated at some point. Nyland concluded that the batteries are air-cooled, so we can conclude that nothing has changed from the previous generation. Recall: the old Renault Zoe ZE 40 used active cooling with forced air circulation, and an additional air cooler was included in the air conditioning system. As a result, it was possible to achieve a lower (or higher) temperature inside the battery than outside.

> How are batteries in electric vehicles cooled? [MODEL LIST]

It is quite loud when driving fast, but on the road the car feels more stable than the BMW i3. In fact, the BMW i3 above a certain speed - which is unlikely to be solved by anyone due to the fact that the range is reduced in the eyes - is sensitive to lateral gusts of air, for example, caused by passing cars. Zoe's round shape clearly protects the car from such nervous jolts.

The whole Renault Zoe ZE 50 review is worth a look:

Editor's note www.elektrowoz.pl: Bjorn Nyland has a Patreon account (HERE) and we think it is worth supporting him with a small donation. The Norwegian is distinguished by a truly journalistic approach and reliability, he amazes us by the fact that he prefers to inspect the car, and not, for example, have dinner (we have the same;). In our opinion, this a very positive change compared to all satisfied car media representatives.

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