Cars die quietly. Their ‘look’ lasts six or seven years with mid-life changes, while their underbits generally go twice as long because they’re by far the most expensive components to change. Sales typically peak a couple of years before the end, and by the time the Grim Reaper arrives, the manufacturing company has long stopped talking about the outgoing model and is well down the road with noise about its replacement. So it is with the Zoe, Renault’s pioneering volume electric car.
It didn’t have either the most powerful motor – that applies to the post-2019 R135 – or the biggest, 52kWh battery, but I soon discovered that such details hardly mattered for the use to which our household was to put the car. The Zoe taught us a family lesson about EVs that I believe will last the next three to five years. For people like us, who live in a semi-rural situation 100 miles from London but have strong connections there, the best EV is undoubtedly a compact runabout.