Every company has a social and moral responsibility towards those at the bottom of economic pile… but helping them can, in turn, help the company in question.

That’s the message from Claire Martin, Renault’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Managing Director of the Renault Foundation at the 2013 Global Meeting of the Women’s Forum held in Deauville, France (16-18 October).

After a successful year long trial, the running of Renault’s innovative Twizy Way car-sharing scheme in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, has been handed to specialist operator KEYMOOV. The handover was completed on September 25th and the Twizy Way becomes the third car-sharing scheme in France purely for electric vehicles after Autolib in Paris and Autoblue in Nice.

Twizy Way, based around the electric urban two-seater, is perfect for Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a new town created in 1960s to the south west of Paris. Renault closely monitored the trial, which started in 2012, and the experience gained has allowed the company to fine tune the service better to match customer requirements.

Renault’s world-leading expertise in electric vehicle technology is on the right track. Literally. At the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, the company revealed its latest model: a single-seater racing car, powered by an advanced 270hp electric motor.

The Spark-Renault SRT_01E has been created for the world’s first pure EV championship. The FIA-sanctioned 2014 Formula E series kicks off next year and will see 20 identical Spark-Renault racers from ten teams taking part.

Recognising the zero-emission status of the 10-round championship, the races will all be held in the centre of some of the world’s largest cities. European races will take place in London, Rome and Berlin while the host cities in Asia are Beijing, Bangkok and Putrajava. When the series moves to the Americas, the teams will race in Los Angeles, Miami, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. The series will be held from September 2014 to June 2015.

Renault's Kangoo Z.E. has reached the milestone of 10,000 vehicles registered, reflecting the popularity of this versatile, zero-emission van. Launched at the end of 2011, the Kangoo Z.E. has become Europe's top-selling small electric van and represents around 10 percent of all Kangoo sales.

A special ceremony was held at the Frankfurt Motor Show on September 10th to mark the 10,000th registration. 

Renault’s new design language is already winning awards. The company picked up no fewer than five honours at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the annual Automotive Brand Contest organised by the German Design Council.
 
The accolades focused on Renault range of new models – ZOE, Clio and Captur – all of which picked up awards in the Exterior Volume Brand category. All three models have been launched within the past year and reflect the first fruits from creative genius Laurens van den Acker, who was appointed Renault’s head of design in 2010.
 
The other two awards were equally well deserved. The Alpine A110-50 took its win in the ‘concepts’ category while the entire Renault stand – called ‘The Bump’ – was also given a gong.

Electric car sharing schemes have been given a major boost following the creation of a new partnership between Renault and Bolloré. The letter of intent recently signed by the two groups addresses potential improvements in three key areas: the implementation of new car sharing solutions, increased production of Bluecars, and the development of a new 3-seater EV.
 
The French investment group Bolloré has supplied Autolib’, Paris's car-sharing service, with Bluecar electric vehicles ever since its launch in 2011 – and now the partnership with Renault is set to extend the initiative within and beyond the French capital.

The need to reduce CO2 emissions was the main thrust behind the development of Renault’s pure electric vehicles.
 
But Renault’s determination to reduce the emissions from right across its range of cars hasn’t stopped with EVs. Advanced engineering and state-of-the-art know how has seen a dramatic reduction in the emissions produced by its petrol and diesel-powered cars.