Together In Electric Dreams

What we like:

Its slick French flair

its zippiness and its ultra fun drive.

What we dislike:

That turning indicator sound and the handbrake lever ‘krrrak’ sound.

Starting an electric car is always a strange feeling… it feels totally different. There’s no familiar shudder of the engine block, no firing of the spark plug, no reassuring idling sound from the engine waking up from its cold slumber. Instead, you just hear a chime and the whirring sound from the starting of the air conditioner fans. The dash display changes, and that’s pretty much it. Your car is now ready to go.

And boy does it go! On paper, the ZOE’s 0-100km/h acceleration is indicated as 13.2secs, but it certainly feels faster than that. It’s so zippy that from a standstill at the traffic light, it’ll have you reaching the opposite end of the yellow box faster than you can say Champs-Élysées! You’ll certainly have some Cat B car owners turning their heads in puzzlement.

The ZOE has the looks of a 1-litre hatch, but the torque pull that you’ll experience feels like that of some 2-litre cars. That’s because, in an electric car, you don’t need to build up RPM to get to the point of maximum torque. You get that maximum torque INSTANTLY.

Press down on the accelerator, and the R90 electric motor instantly delivers maximum torque of 225Nm with 68kW of maximum output. No lag, no spooling, no gear shift jerkiness, no vibration, no noise, just quick smooth acceleration.

Even in Eco mode (it conserves battery by reducing power output to the engine and the air-conditioning), the car still feels zippy and fun. With its low centre of gravity and moderately firm suspension, the car corners well.

Driving an EV is very different, and part of the fun is in learning to manage the amount of throttle and getting the right timing as to when you should lift your foot off the accelerator. In an EV, the car starts to slow down once you take your foot off the accelerator.

And for that reason, I also found the cruise control feature on the ZOE to be very useful. Driving locally, most people hardly use the cruise control function on their car. But it’s different in an EV because it starts to immediately slow down when you lift off. So when you have a clear highway, and you want to maintain speed, just engage cruise control, and you won’t have to hold your foot in the same tiring position to keep the car going at the same speed.

The new Renault ZOE is priced at S$127,999 inclusive of COE and while that might not be cheap, you’ll get a lot of value back from the fuel savings and the reduced servicing costs. In EVs, the quality and reliability of the battery is vital, so it’s reassuring that Renault provides an 8-year, 160,000km warranty for the battery.

The ZOE is the perfect car for heavy-footed drivers who also want to do their bit to save the Earth. With regular combustion engine cars, that’s just not possible. But with the ZOE, you can have your macaroon and eat it.

*All information accurate as at 5 October 2018

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