RENAULT ZOE - RENAULT ZOE FULLY ELECTRIC INCRASES NEDC DRIVING RANGE - 2017 NCR TV HD

The longest driving range of any currently available mass-market all-electric vehicleRenault was the first car maker in Europe to believe in fully electric vehicles and the ZOE was the first mass- market electric vehicle to deliver an NEDC driving range of more than 200km.Today, Renault continues to be one step ahead of the competition: fitted with the Z.E 40 battery, the ZOE boasts the longest driving range of any currently-available mass-market fully electric car.– The first new ZOEs will be on the road by the end of the year. The car is built at Renault’s Flins plant, near Paris, France. Order books opened on October 1 at the Paris Motor Show for all European countries except the UK, which began to take orders on November 1.
NEDC driving range of 400 kilometres available for all
motorists now thanks to the Z.E. 40 battery
With double the driving range, the new ZOE covers a wider range of needs while remaining the market’s most affordable electric car.
Electric vehicles more versatile than ever
Fitted with the new Z.E. 40 battery, the ZOE delivers double the NEDC5 driving range compared with when it was first released, i.e. 400 kilometres. That’s equivalent to a real-world range of 300 kilometres in urban or suburban areas. Users no longer need to worry about charging their car as often and can put it to a wider variety of uses. The ZOE’s new driving range also removes the final psychological barrier that stands in the way of buying an electric car.
ZOE users can now travel more freely with double the driving range, taking longer trips than before and even unplanned journeys.
– Owners can travel twice as far on a single charge, which means they can now go away for the weekend in their ZOE without having to charge its battery mid-journey.
Ever since it was launched, the ZOE has provided a viable alternative to internal combustion-engined cars for short daily commutes. In fact, the average daily commute of 80 percent of European motorists is much less than 60 kilometres.
– For this type of journey, ZOE users now only need to charge their car half as often because the driving range has been doubled. This means a single charge will last for a whole working week, from Monday to Friday, for instance.
– Renault was the first car maker in Europe to believe in fully electric vehicles and the ZOE was the first mass- market electric vehicle to deliver an NEDC driving range of more than 200km.
Harnessing advanced technology
The new battery, which was developed jointly by Renault and LG Chem, is largely responsible for achieving the NEDC driving range of 400 kilometres, together with the ZOE’s outstanding energy efficiency.
The market’s highest energy-density battery
The ZOE’s new Z.E. 40 battery boasts 41kWh of useful energy, equivalent to almost double the storage capacity of that of a standard battery (i.e. 22kWh of useful energy).
The energy density of the Z.E. 40 battery has been boosted – a major innovation developed in close partnership with LG Chem. This involved increasing the battery’s storage capacity without making it bigger or a lot heavier. The ZOE’s new battery has the highest energy density on the market.
Like a standard 22kWh battery, the Z.E. 40 battery has 192 cells and 12 modules, but almost double the storage capacity. This was achieved by improving the chemistry of the battery cells and adding active materials.
– The chemistry of the battery cells has been improved. Electrochemists varied the amounts of the different materials used to make the cells, adding more metals which store energy.
– The amount of active materials in the cells has been increased, while ensuring that each module stayed the same size. The engineers succeeded in increasing the active surface area by 10 percent by optimising the battery cell design. They also made the battery cells thicker and reduced the empty space between the cells.
A highly energy-efficient car The battery’s large storage capacity converts directly into extended range for the car. When fitted with the Z.E. 40 battery, the ZOE boasts one of the best NEDC driving range to battery storage capacity ratios. Energy efficiency gains have been achieved thanks to the meticulous work that went into integrating the new battery in the vehicle, as well as to the ZOE’s fundamental technical qualities.
All the group’s mass-market electric vehicles are designed and developed by designers and engineers working out of the Renault Technocentre in Guyancourt near Paris. Its EVs are also all produced at group plants. Renault’s expertise in electric vehicles is mainly based in France, home to the make’s high value-added design and production operations. Renault is responsible for the design, development and production of the ZOE, as well as most of its mechanical components.