Here’s one car neither of us saw coming. Renault is displaying a right-hand drive version of the Renault Fluence Z.E, with the Z.E presumably the acronym of Zero Emissions. Yes, the said Fluence is an all-electric car that seats five – just like the Fluence that’s being sold here.
First unveiled back in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show as a concept car, it’s now fitted with a 22 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that’s good for 95 horsepower at 11,000 rpm (yes eleven thousand revolutions) and 226 Nm of instant torque. On a full charge, the electric car will cover about 185 km of tarmac. Its 0 to 100 km/h sprint time clocks in at 13.7 seconds and manages a top speed of 135 km/h.
Being an electric car, the battery pack is placed behind the rear seats, thus compromising boot space by a considerable amount – halved, at least. It’s got one forward gear only, and the overall length of this car has been stretched by 130 mm to accommodate the lithium-ion battery.
Likely to be just a part of the roadshow in One Utama shopping complex, the Fluence Z.E is displayed alongside the Koleos, Twizy one-person runabout electric vehicle, Clio R.S, Fluence and Fluence Black Edition.
As of October last year, Renault has sold just a tinge over 3,900 units of the Fluence Z.E worldwide. Sales begun in 2011 carrying a base price tag of 26,000 Euros, that’s close to RM105,000. There’s a good article written by Bill Moore about the Fluence Z.E and its death at the website EV World, so do give that a read.
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