Renault marks major EV sharing order from the UK

The UK-based electric car subscription service Onto (formerly Evezy) has ordered 1,100 Renault Zoe. The first units were already delivered. A pilot project for electrification is also being launched in a small village in the Pyrenees.

The remaining vehicles are to be handed over to Onto within six months, according to Renault UK. Originally the subscription provider (then still under the name Evezy) had ordered 180 Zoe. The Zoe ordered at that time and also the now newly delivered Zoe should already be available for the customers.

Just under two weeks ago the Opel subsidiary Vauxhall received a large order for electric vehicles. British Gas had ordered 1,000 Vivaro-e for its fleet at that time. So Vauxhall has now broken the record of the country’s largest commercial order for electric cars. British Gas is part of the Centrica Group, which joined the EV100 initiative in 2019. The company has thus committed itself to electrifying its vehicle fleet by 2030.

For a monthly fee, Onto provides the car, insurance, breakdown service, maintenance and even charging current. No down payment is required, the subscription can be cancelled or changed every month. According to Renault, the entry-level price for the Zoe is 339 pounds per month – but only for cars of the “previous generation”, i.e. those models that have already been ordered in 2017. What the subscription to the new Zoes with a 50 kW DC charger will cost is not clear from the announcement.

The subscription provider has not ordered 1,100 identical vehicles but has divided them between the Iconic and GT Line equipment. Be that as it may, all vehicles have the more powerful R135 engine and the larger 52-kWh battery.

A significantly smaller Zoe fleet will be used by Renault in a Pyrenean village in the future: In the municipality of Appy in Ariège, all households will be equipped with a Zoe as well as a wallbox, according to a statement by the car manufacturer. The village will also be equipped with a public charging station. With the field test, Renault wants to prove that electric mobility works even in remote regions. “If even in remote villages like Appy all everyday driving can be done electrically, this is possible practically everywhere,” says Renault.

What is clear is that the field test that is scheduled to last three years together with the partner Publicis is manageable: Appy has just 25 inhabitants. When Onto’s nearly 1,300 Zoes are rented out and on the road, this is much stronger proof that electric mobility works on a broader scale.

fleetnews.co.uk, renault.co.uk (Onto), renault-presse.de (Appy in German)