Last October, Renault unveiled an A-level pure electric SUV named Renault City K-ZE (known as Renault e诺 in Chinese) at the “Renault Night” in Paris. I thought this model was going to be as mediocre as the Volkswagen e-Golf and the Nissan Leaf Nismo RC.
However, when Dongfeng Renault announced on September 5th that the Renault e诺 would only cost between 61,800-71,800 yuan after subsidies, I was truly amazed.
The Renault e诺 is positioned as a European-style urban pure electric SUV, with dimensions of 373515791515 mm, making it an obvious small-sized electric car. In this segment, where domestic brands dominate, the Renault e诺, as a joint venture brand, still manages to offer a price comparable to that of self-owned brands in the same category, which is truly surprising. Is this really the Renault that I know?
Blue Ocean Strategy
Looking at the whole pure electric car market, the first pure electric car models of traditional joint venture brands are generally compact family sedans, such as the Volkswagen e-Golf, Buick Velite 6, and Chevrolet Bolt. However, Dongfeng Renault took a different approach and was the first to launch an A00-class small car. In fact, this is the smallest car in the entire Dongfeng Renault lineup. Many people may find it difficult to understand what Dongfeng Renault is trying to achieve.
From 2016 to 2018, the new energy vehicle market itself grew at a rate of over 50% annually, and A00-class cars accounted for more than 40% of pure electric passenger cars. Sales volume broke through the 300,000 mark in both 2017 and 2018.
For the first 10 months of this year, three of the top 10 best-selling domestic pure electric cars were A00-class models, proving that the demand for A00-class pure electric cars is real and growing rapidly.
In addition, in November of last year, the six ministries jointly issued the “Notice on Strengthening the Management of Low-Speed Electric Vehicles” to strengthen the management of low-speed electric vehicles and require local authorities to carry out cleanup and rectification work on low-speed electric vehicles.With the governance and management of low-speed electric vehicles by the government, some low-speed electric vehicle users are inevitably turning to A00-class models. Clearly, A00-class electric vehicles still have a considerable market.
In addition, the A00-class electric vehicle market has long been dominated by traditional domestic brands, and even new car-making forces have rarely appeared. Dongfeng Renault has also identified this blue ocean, and with the Renault e-NOU, it has become the only joint venture brand in the market. Moreover, the price of Renault e-NOU is completely on the same starting line as traditional domestic brand counterparts of the same level.
More than just price
It is likely that most people first think of Tesla when they mention electric vehicles, followed by German brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz. Renault is almost unheard of, and is Renault e-NOU reliable since its price is so cheap?
In fact, Renault started researching and developing electric vehicles as early as 2008. Renault has more than one-fifth of the European electric vehicle market and one-third of the maintainable quantity, selling over 250,000 electric vehicles in Europe and ranking first in European electric vehicle sales for four consecutive years.
Global pure electric vehicle sales ranking from January to September 2019
Renault ZOE has been in the top three in the European electric vehicle market for six consecutive years since its official delivery in December 2012. Even looking at the global market, Renault ZOE has remained in the top 10 on the list for a long time.
Of course, some people may not understand why it is Renault e-NOU instead of directly introducing Renault ZOE into China?
First, let’s take a look at the price of the French domestic Renault ZOE. Even the most basic version costs RMB 185,000. Moreover, the ZOE body is only 408417301562 mm, which is just a small car. If ZOE was directly introduced into China, it would inevitably not be suitable for local conditions.
This is why Dongfeng Renault chose a lower-level model. At the same time, because Renault itself has strong technical and experience reserves in electric vehicle design, research and development, engineering, manufacturing, and supporting after-sales fields, only then can Renault e-NOU be quickly pushed to the market, while also having extremely attractive prices.
Of course, price is not the only factor. What people are more concerned about is the strength of Renault e-NOU itself.
- Powertrain
Let’s start from Renault e-NOU’s powertrain parameters:- NEDC range: 271 km
- Battery capacity: 26.8 kWh
- Maximum power: 33 kW
- Maximum torque: 125 N·m
From the data alone, Renault e-NUO basically meets the standards of mainstream vehicles in this price range, and will not lag behind self-owned brands like many joint venture electric vehicles by a generation.
In late October, we had a test drive of Renault e-NUO. The total driving distance was 126 km, covering various road conditions without intentionally saving electricity.
As can be seen from the chart, the highest energy consumption of Renault e-NUO in these 5 segments was only 10.3 kWh/100 km. Although the weather conditions were relatively friendly to electric vehicles at that time, for such a micro car, the interior space is relatively small, and the air conditioner itself does not have a high power, so even if you turn on the air conditioner, the energy consumption will not be overly exaggerated. Therefore, the range of Renault e-NUO can completely meet the short-distance city commuting needs.
As for power, the Renault e-NUO is equipped with an electric motor with a maximum power of 33 kW and a maximum torque of 125 N·m. However, due to the vehicle weight of only 921 kg, although it cannot be said to have sufficient power, the output characteristics of the motor allow it to release maximum torque at any time without the noise of an engine. Overall power feeling in the 0-60 km/h stage that is most commonly used in the city is much better than that of same-price or same-level fuel vehicles.
In addition, as mentioned above, Dongfeng Renault has accumulated decades of pure electric vehicle technology from Renault. The Renault e-NUO uses an exclusively designed battery protection shield, and the battery has undergone 16 safety tests including squeezing, piercing, and vibration. The Renault e-NUO also uses a fast-acting voltage reduction function. In the event of a severe collision, the voltage can be reduced to 60 V within 1 second to avoid accidents caused by the battery group.
Regarding overcharge protection, Renault eNUO is equipped with an intelligent battery temperature control system. When the battery temperature is between 45-55 ℃, the output power will linearly decrease, and when the temperature reaches 55 ℃, the output power will be reduced to 0 kW. When the temperature is ≥60 ℃, the fault alarm starts, the battery relay disconnects, which ensures the safety of the battery to the maximum extent and guarantee the safety of driving.
- Space
Speaking of space, I would like to start with Renault eNUO built on the CMF-A platform.
In brief, the CMF (Common Module Family) platform is jointly developed by the Renault-Nissan Alliance, namely “Common Modular Platform”. It is actually similar to the Volkswagen MQB platform and can improve development flexibility and reduce development costs and difficulties for different models.
CMF-A is a small car platform under the CMF platform.
The advantage of using a small car platform to build a micro-car is obvious. Compared with the main competitors in the same class, Renault eNUO is significantly longer. Therefore, while ensuring that the rear seats can accommodate 2 people comfortably, Renault eNUO has a tidy 300L trunk, which is very large but rarely seen in the same class of vehicles, and just throw in 4 suitcases with no pressure, making it much more practical.
- Interior
Renault E-Nuo adopts a simple design style. Due to cost issues, the interior materials are mostly hard plastic. However, thanks to Renault’s excellent assembly technology, and the blue decorative strip on the steering wheel, the chrome decorative strip of the multimedia panel, and the piano paint style, we can also see that Dongfeng Renault is controlling costs while also striving to add some exquisite feeling to the Renault E-Nuo.
It’s worth mentioning that except for the lowest configuration model, Renault E-Nuo comes standard with an 8-inch multimedia touchscreen, with good response speed and smoothness. In terms of functionality, the car comes with its own in-car version of Gaode Map and Kuwo Music Box, which can be conveniently controlled by voice control system for navigation and multimedia settings.
In addition, Renault E-Nuo also supports remote control via mobile APP. After logging in to the account on the car machine, the APP can not only show the current status, remaining battery power, and vehicle location, but also remotely check, unlock or lock the vehicle, and send navigation information to the car.
Clearly, Renault E-Nuo has not succumbed to the lazy tradition of traditional joint venture automakers in terms of intelligence. Even if the price of this car is only about 60,000 yuan, Dongfeng Renault still strives to bring comfortable and convenient driving experience to consumers through intelligentization.
Conclusion:
It’s hard to imagine that Renault E-Nuo has not only caught up with domestic brands in terms of price, but also shows no weakness in terms of endurance, safety and intelligence, and even has a slightly better advantage in space. It’s fair to say that Dongfeng Renault has found the gap in China’s new energy vehicle market and created a cost-effective product.
Click on the picture to learn more details about Renault E-Nuo’s configuration.With the launch of the Renault e-NUO, Dongfeng Renault has fired the first shot in the Chinese new energy vehicle market. The rest is to wait and see. We look forward to the Renault e-NUO, like its distant brother Renault ZOE, also occupying a place on the sales chart of pure electric vehicles in China.
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This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.