BHPian hifisharu recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Early 2024 I returned home one day, to find a notice on our road where we generally parked our car saying ” No Parking” for the next couple of weeks due to construction work. I wondered what the construction could be, probably some maintenance stuff I said to myself and later came to know the City administration was planning to build charging points. This immediately sounded like a great opportunity to replace our second car with an electric runabout, since we were anyway looking to replace our two seater Smart. Our requirement was that the car be as compact as possible, just a city vehicle and a range of 250-300 kms would suffice. So began our hunt from the myriad electro offerings on sale, narrowing it down to the following few: BMW i3 VW e-Up! Fiat 500e Mini Cooper E Renault ZoeBMW i3:First we tried the BMW i3 from my colleague, in the S variant. Felt very nimble to potter around town, very nice interiors and considering it’s nearly a 10 year old design, it was quite futuristically designed. However, being a decade old tech, the battery tech was simply not upto the mark, very poor range, in winter reduces drastically and the BMW premium made it expensive. Also my wife found it to be on the bigger side, eliminating it from the list. Volkswagen e-Up!:Nice, cute city run-about with good interior space. Priced very decently too, but strictly made for the city. One Autobahn run and we saw how extremely underpowered it was. In some cases it was just dangerously slow at accelerating and the range dropped like a rock at 120-130kmph, very dated interiors and terrible boot space, hence ruled out. Fiat 500e:Nice compact dimensions, lovely, fresh interiors, though not tech laden. Test drive was very positive, major drawbacks being the small batteries on offer and being available only as a 3 Door. The main reason for switching from a two seater to a 4/5 seater was because of the addition to our family and with the 3 Door vehicle, assembing the infant seat is quite a chore and hence was rejected. Mini Cooper E:Great looking car, very trendy interiors, good choice of batteries. Typical Mini calibration on the throttle/ re-gen, very zippy in the city and great on the Autobahn as well. However, same as the Fiat 500, only available as a 3 door and had to be rejected. Renault Zoe:We had considered the Zoe back in 2022 as well and we ended up having a second look, now at the facelift model, with a bigger battery and some other tech improvements. The vehicle was being offered with the Battery as a Service option, which brought down the vehicle price by nearly half and after the test drive, we decided to go with the Zoe. The Renault Zoe, presented as a concept in 2010, uses the Clio platform called The Zoe Preview, shown to the public at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. “We wanted to design a car in motion and made for motion. Where one line stops, another begins. The design of ZOE was addressed as a whole, like a drop of water. It has no corners or cut-off points.” explains Jean Semeriva, exterior designer of the Zoe. The interior design of ZOE is the work of Dominique Marzolf whose first sketches also expressed the theme of purity. The dashboard is carved from a single block, in clean, taut lines. Later in 2017, the Zoe E-Sport was shown as a concept at the Geneva Autoshow, which was the basis for the facelift version. LIKES:–Compact dimensions, small foot print but still has good amount of interior space. — Varied battery and motor options offered — Excellent lighting package, all LED lights — Quality interior, ergonomically well designed, soft touch materials at major touch points — Fantastic value for money, with many Driver aids included and CCS2 fast chargingDISLIKES:–Not a ground up EV platform, leading to a raised floor and slightly odd seating — No frunk, overall less luggage space — Range drops very fast at Autobahn speeds ( 110-120 kmph), not suitable for long journeys — Doors have a weird lip/ edge to them, which can hurt you in the face/neck — Soft suspension, leading to a very wallowy ride and mass is very evident. For the test drive, we picked a Renault dealer near my office, who turned out to be a dealer who specializes only in EVs and therefore had a huge lot of Zoes lined up, in various trim levels. We took our time checking out the trim levels, the pros and cons and finally settled for the Intense model, which also happened to be the one with the more powerful motor, 135PS and also with the bigger battery, 52kWh. After the test drive, we quickly finalised on the exact vehicle we wanted to go for, signed a few papers for the vehicle ownership transfer, for the battery contract and the deal was done. The model we bought, with the following specs: 2020 Renault Zoe, R135, Intense ZE50, with the 52kWh Battery, in Crystal White. Exterior: It’s a compact car, with the Teardrop design, pretty well implemented, still having a fairly aggressive front end and retaining the cute, city car look. This version/ trim level, having the all LED package comes with the Renault Pure Vision lights, which offer really good throw and spread in the low and high beams. At the rear, it has a funky LED taillight setup, the overall design maintaining the teardrop design. The rear opening is pretty wide and offers a low loading lip. Lighting: As mentioned above, Renault Pure Vision LED lighting and with Fog lamps for cornering function. The car comes with 16 inch Alloys, shod with Michelin Cross Climate, All season tires. So far the grip has been acceptable and the tire noise is well controlled. Snow/ ice tire grip is something I’m yet to test. Brakes are disc brakes all round, though in typical EV fashion, brake bite is pretty poor and feel is absent. Under heavy braking the vehicle mass is very evident and takes firm pressure to get the physical brakes working. In the Front Fascia, integrated very well is also the charging port, with the CCS port as well. By well integrated I mean it’s not an ugly flap like in other EVs and also since it’s centrally located, it works well regardless which side of the road the charging pillar is located. Powering the Zoe is a 100 kW (136 PS) motor, with the following specs: Power: 100 KW Torque: 245 Nm 0-100 km/h Acceleration: 9.5 seconds Top Speed: 140 km/h Drivetrain: Front-wheel drive (FWD) Front service opening for filling washer fluid, no Frunk here unfortunately. At the rear, standard storage space as with many Hatchbacks and additional compartments for the charging cable and other knicknacks. Quirky stuff: No conventional door Handles at the rear, just this button, takes a bit of time getting used to. Sharp, protruding lip on the doors, might catch one off-guard and can cause injury. Continue reading BHPian hifisharu’s post for more insights and information.
