Renault to drop Zoe electric car

Renault Australia is walking away from one of its EVs as part of a radical move to cull its local lineup and focus on models with more volume potential.

One of the pioneers of battery electric vehicles in Australia, Renault today announced it would abandon plans to bring the new Zoe to Australia.

The announcement comes months before the new Zoe was due Down Under – in 2019 Renault confirmed it would come here in 2020 – bringing with it a larger 52kWh battery and sleeker styling.

Delving into the sales numbers it’s easier to understand the decision.

Since going on sale in 2017 just 63 Zoes have been sold in Australia, making it one of the slowest selling electric car, well below the rival Nissan Leaf that managed around ten times as many sales.

As with all EVs, the Zoe wasn’t helped by its plump price tag; the recommended price kicked off at $47,490 plus on-road costs.

Being a small city hatchback, the Zoe was also playing in a dwindling segment of the Australian market.

But Renault Australia is not abandoning EVs altogether.

Renault will continue selling the electric-powered Kangoo van.

Selling from $49,990 plus on-road costs, the Kangoo Electric ZE Maxi is the only all-electric commercial vehicle currently on sale in Australia.

So the Kangoo EV van has a point of difference, especially for small businesses and fleets wanting to make an environmental statement with their vehicles.

Renault Australia says it will continue to monitor the market with the view to expanding its electric car lineup in a few years.

“We need an EV SUV,” corporate communications manager Andrew Ellis told EV Central. “Hopefully that will be something that we get in a couple of years.”

Ellis said any electric SUV from Renault would be “at least a couple of years away” but that he was confident one was on the way.

In the meantime Renault will drop the Clio and Kadjar from its range.

As well as commercial vehicles, Renault will focus on SUVs, including an updated Captur and Koleos and small Arkana, the latter to be imported from Korea.