Winning an award or two would normally be something to shout about… but the all-electric Renault ZOE supermini does everything in silence. So we’ll just have to whisper that ZOE has won a pair of ‘green’ awards.
The Next Green Car Awards 2012, run by the UK’s leading eco-conscious motoring website, has hailed the zero-emission Renault ZOE as its top supermini, highlighting its ‘impressive’ acceleration and ‘normal’ prices.
Better still, and even though it’s several months before the car goes on sale in the country, Renault ZOE picked up the prestigious Next Green Car Gold Award, making it this year’s overall winner ahead of rivals from BMW, Ford, Peugeot, Toyota, Volvo and Volkswagen.
A delighted Andy Heiron, head of Renault UK’s Electric Vehicle Programme, said: “With its affordable price tag, stylish design and great technology – such as its innovative Chameleon charger with fast charge capability and the R-Link internet connected integrated touch-screen tablet – we have high hopes for the fourth model in our electric vehicle range.”
Dr. Ben Lane, Managing Editor of Next Green Car, said: “The 2012 winners reflect two key elements underlying current green car development: downsizing and electrification.
“Three of the winners are brand new models and follow the design philosophy of ‘small is beautiful’. Over half the winners also incorporate electric drive-trains, either as pure electric cars, plug-in hybrids or with start-stop.”
The Next Green Car citation reads: “With the ZOE, the first all-electric supermini, Renault offers an EV with the potential to ignite the mass-market. Form and function are stylishly combined to provide zero emissions and a 130 mile range; all for the same price as a conventional model.”
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