Renault Zoe ZE50 electric van review (decent range, size & specs)

[@briangriffiths114]

Ideal for the, usually retired, part-time delivery drivers in my locality who use their small private cars for transporting parcels or delivering fast-food and never use the back seats.

[@GoGreenAutos]

Hmmm, all those part time delivery drivers who probably do not have commercial use on their insurance cover!

[@hughmarcus1]

Interesting. I’ve seen some liveried Zoes about from our electricity grid company (Northern Ireland Electricity) I’d assumed they were cars with the windows covered by the graphics, but they’re probably vans. The drivers are the guys who change the meters, so they’re ideal for that.

[@GoGreenAutos]

Yes, there's loads of van drivers that don't need much cargo space, where these are ideal. Many trades just require a driver and a toolbox or clipboard!

[@jamesfleming5875]

The good thing nowadays is that we have so many different sizes of vans,No this won’t suit everyone but it will suit a lot of people. I’m retired and do at most 3,000 miles a year, my wife has an id3 .I have a kangoo ze33 van,I use it to take the dogs out and garden centre and the tip also to collect logs from the verges. We have 18 solar panels with a Tesla powerwall battery so we run both the cars on solar,we have had ev cars for 3 years and have never charged away from home.we have a zappi charger. If you sit down and work out what you need you probably would be surprised what would suit you. I very rarely drive the id3,I’m much happier driving my Kangoo. I don’t need a van with a bigger battery for my use,I don’t see me changing for a long time.

[@GoGreenAutos]

Good to hear

[@RWBHere]

Thanks Matt. For reference, we have the hatchback, and it often carries cargo: In mixed urban and B road driving, it's quite easy to do 300 miles in Summer. We average 5.8 mi/kWh in Summer and 4.8 in Winter. On motorways we see 4.6 mi/kWh in Spring/Autumn. (I've not measured motorway consumption in Summer or Winter.) Under ideal conditions, flat urban roads and a hot Summer night, with a pre-warmed battery, and no stopping for traffic lights, I've seen 7.5 miles / kWh on a 20 mile round trip. The very worst I've seen, in freezing weather with snow, the car managed an estimated 212 miles from a full charge and with a battery starting from cold. I recharged the car from about 22% SOC, because I didn't want a cold and discharged battery.

[@GoGreenAutos]

Thank you for this info, very useful.

[@markweatherill]

Hmm you can tell how big Renault thinks the target audience for this is, by the effort they've put into it. And I think they're correct. It's a shame we can't have a modern day 2CV van...

[@AlainODea]

This looks like a excellent last mile courier vehicle. It's a shame they aren't in North America. It's also a shame 3 phase is so rare here. 3 hr charge from flat is really impressive. You could go 80 miles in the morning, fully recharge over lunch and go 80 miles in the afternoon, charge over supper, and go again on an intense delivery day (a big sales day or big event like Mothers Day for a flower shop) and never go under 50% so you could daily intensely drive this without degrading the battery notably at all! Wild.

[@AlainODea]

Also, the autolock, auto-unlock with the fob would be a game changer when out doing many deliveries or pickups door to door. Minor but repeated annoyance fumbling with a fob every time. Well thought out.

[@gavjlewis]

Thought this would be great for my friend who is a dog walker as she could put dog crates in the back. The only downside is the price considering you can get a 71 plate (14k miles) Iconic for £12.5k. She is not VAT registered so that wouldn't matter to her. But before i went to your site i thought it would be £12k+VAT. But vans always seem to be expensive for what you get and im sure you know the market well. Im sure the right customer will come along at some point. I enjoyed the video anyway. 👍

[@GoGreenAutos]

Yes vans are always a lot more expensive than cars and less equipment for the money too.

[@capgram]

To save weight, you'd have thought that they'd have removed the rear passenger doors, which are completely unnecessary on a small van, because it would extend the battery range further

[@GoGreenAutos]

But that would require a significant change with new press die tooling etc and not worth the money and would probably make it not viable to do a Zoe van, when they already have the Kangoo van.

[@ianburnett4605]

in NZ you could buy a model 3 for roughly the same price

[@cg986]

💪

[@alanjenkinson7812]

I was interested on one of these, however Renault UK were totally clueless, even when the vehicle was launched. I gave up in the end and I believe they’re not making them anymore. Killed by the dealers no doubt. They were very expensive though but being able to reclaim the VAT and then the benefits of it being a business vehicle were the attraction

[@GoGreenAutos]

Yes the Zoe van has now been discontinued and replaced with the Kangoo E-Tech, with a smaller battery and less range! The Zoe hatchback is ending too.

[@alanjenkinson7812]

@@GoGreenAutos yes, and IMO a pretty useless range from the Kangoo.

[@mdr_random]

Interesting. But really it is just a car with the rear seat removed. All the main requirements of a van are not there. You need easy loading and neither the side doors nor the back with the lip (however small) allows this. The rear window is still clear and any of them can be broken in seconds to get what's in the back. The front is like a car and looks nice now with low miles/not much use, but with the hammering work vans get will it last? Look at any van and they all have to take a lot of abuse - perhaps mostly when it's not you that owns the vehicle. If they are plastic support runners under the rear tray then maybe they will get broken quickly. You could probably just buy the car version, take out the rear seats and get a sheet of plywood from Wickes and achieve the same thing (thought you will need a proper van to get the sheet home initially). However...it may find its niche somewhere - dog walker/owner. Evri (Hermes) driver or similar working in a tight city with clean air zones. Or someone who never want rear seats - though the insurance may be more if it's classed as a van. I'm not knocking the video btw - just Renault's take on a small van by just taking the rear seats out.

[@Mancozeb100]

Very popular size with small businesses here in Ireland… Lot of Fiestas, Corsas, Astras, 206/207/208, Corollas, etc., have been sold like this over the last 20 years or so. Also lower purchase tax compared here that helps.

[@alanjenkinson7812]

It’s all about taxation and VAT

[@GoGreenAutos]

No different to any of the car derived vans, such as the Corsa, Astra etc. They have their place.

[@kevinmurtagh3434]

It needs sliding side door

[@cjmillsnun]

They aren't good for 250 miles. 200 is real world in the summer and 170-180 in the winter.

[@GoGreenAutos]

Someone else has just posted they are getting 300 miles from theirs in the summer. As always, it depends on how you drive.

[@stevebeever2442]

That's not a van it's a car with no seats. Why don't you put a £20 camping stove in it and call it a motorhome

[@GoGreenAutos]

It's a car derived van. No difference to a Corsa, Astra or other car derived vans.

[@michalk7848]

Van 😂

[@Mancozeb100]

Yep - for when the load is too big for a motorcycle courier. Great around cities. And farms.

[@GoGreenAutos]

Yep, car derived vans have their place. A lot of people don't need to carry much around and would prefer a car derived van for the extra comfort, quieter and VAT reclaim.