Renault Z.E. electric car makes its mark at Goodwood
Renault's Z.E. (Zero Emission) Concept - Click above for high-res image gallery
While Porsche was pushing runners to previously-unknown heights, Renault participated in the Goodwood Festival of Speed with something a bit more appropriate. The company's quirky all-electric concept, the Z.E., was on hand along with the Dauphine, an electric Renault from 1959. While the museum-piece Dauphine took it easy on the display stand (see here), the Z.E. went for a spin on the hillclimb route. Renault PR thought this was just the best thing ever, as their release announcing the drive concludes:
At one point on the route, close to Goodwood House, the outlandish Z.E. Concept, replete with its Acid Green windows and roof-mounted solar panels, joined a Jaguar XJ13 and Aston Martin DBR1 for arguably one of the most surreal car parade sights ever seen at the Goodwood Festival.
We're just happy to see the company is willing to put the little neon greenhouse on public display with bona fide classics. Seems like they're confident in the all-electric route they're taking.
[Source: Renault]
PRESS RELEASE:
RENAULT Z.E. (ZERO EMISSION) CONCEPT SHOCKS GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED
While a succession of high-powered Renault race cars thrilled the vast, 135,000-strong crowd at Silverstone during the World Series by Renault weekend, the second largest motorsport event in the UK, a futuristic electric car was generating quite a buzz of its own at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Over the three-day event, Renault's Z.E. (Zero Emission) Concept, which dazzled at the Paris Motor Show a few months ago, joined two other ultra-rare cars, Ondelios and a 1959 electric Dauphine, from the brand's Paris museum to showcase the French marque's green credentials.
Not just transported over the English Channel to sit idle in Renault's area of the Goodwood FoS-Tech Pavilion, the Kangoo be bop-based three-door also took to the hillclimb route, much to the delight of the awe-inspired onlookers.
As the only one of its kind, and worth around £2 million, the hand-built concept car navigated its way serenely around the route, providing a remarkable contrast to the vintage road and race cars around it. At one point on the route, close to Goodwood House, the outlandish Z.E. Concept, replete with its Acid Green windows and roof-mounted solar panels, joined a Jaguar XJ13 and Aston Martin DBR1 for arguably one of the most surreal car parade sights ever seen at the Goodwood Festival.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mike 6:02PM (7/06/2009)
hahaha....
I love that their own P.R. department calls it "outlandish".
They are right though and I like them all the more for not just realizing it but reveling in it.
Surreal indeed.
- mike
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Ernie 11:24AM (7/07/2009)
Oh. For a moment there, I thought this was some kind of a bad photoshop job.
And now, I wish it were.
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Snoopy 8:12PM (7/06/2009)
It just doesn't look real! It looks like they Photoshopped it in! Heh. Pretty crazy. Now let's see what they can do about making the windows a more normal colour and bringing down the price. Then we'll talk.
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Rick 3:07PM (7/07/2009)
I was going to post the same thing. SHOPPED!!
jpm 8:39PM (7/06/2009)
driving with those neon-green windows would make me throw up
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Rambler 8:56AM (7/07/2009)
I was at Goodwood all three days and never saw this run up the hill?
The only EV cars that ran were 2 Tesla Roadsters, Ruff's Greenster, Mini EV, Think's EV, that crazy Rinspeed i change, Frazer Nash, Misubishi i MiEV, and the Infinity. Oh a Lola race car that used the waste by-product from chocolate.
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dpeilow 6:09PM (7/07/2009)
Interesting that Renault are now claiming that electric Dauphine as their own. It was an aftermarket conversion from the time called a Henney Kilowatt.
ABG even featured it previously: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/02/25/ebay-find-of-the-day-1960-henney-kilowatt-electric-car/
By the way, there are more normal Kangoo ZE prototypes without that neon glass. Personally I think taking something wacky like that to a bunch of petrolheads, particularly English petrolheads, actually does the EV cause no good at all.
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