Blog of RENAULT NISSAN Alliance

“It was brilliant,” said Caroline Seow after her test drive in a Renault Zoe around Edinburgh. So brilliant, in fact, that she decided there and then she wants to buy one when she gets home to Singapore from TEDGlobal 2013.

Caroline, Executive Director of the Family Business Network Asia, sought out Zoe Project Director Simon Luque to find out when the car would be available in Singapore. He told her it would be soon… and he promised she would be one of the first customers.

She said: “It was so quiet and easy to drive and to park. It was a pleasurable driving experience, I loved it. I mostly drive a hybrid at the moment, but this electric vehicle is so much better. Our business is based on sustainable, ethical principles and the Renault Zoe fits that ethos perfectly.”

Another of the many TEDsters to try the car was London-based analyst Ali Ghezelbash. Currently without a car, Ali has been considering an EV so he can drive in and out of the congestion zone without charge. But until his spin around the Scottish capital he had never driven one.

“I was pleasantly surprised. The acceleration was a lot better than I was expecting and it was very smooth – far smoother than a hybrid which always seem to jerk as it goes from electric to petrol mode and back,” he said.

What makes things more interesting is that Ali works for oil company Statoil. Was he just ‘checking out the opposition’?

“No, I consider that we are an energy company and electricity is energy. In considering the future, I am sure that we, as a company, are looking at EVs. I will report my opinions on the Zoe when I get back to the office, but bearing in mind that Statoil is a Norwegian company and helped establish the country’s HyNor ‘Hydrogen Highway’ between Stavanger and Oslo, I think I might be preaching to the converted.”