THE world’s first battery powered family saloon is on the way from Renault at a price which undercuts most other electric vehicles.
But private buyers will be in for a shock if they think they are going to make big savings.
The five seat Fluence ZE is basically a grown up Renault Megane powered by an electric motor.
ZE stands for zero emissions and it is Renault's tag for its new family of electric vehicles.
With the Government’s £5,000 subsidy for electric vehicles taken into account, the Fluence ZE will cost £17,850 when it goes on sale next summer.
That is significantly cheaper than its closest rival – the Leaf from Renault’s sister company Nissan which costs some £24,000 even after the state allowance.
Renault has been able to keep prices for its electric cars down by introducing a complex leasing package for the car’s batteries which, in principle, is similar to choosing a mobile phone tariff.
Costing from £69 a month, the rental cost of the battery pack has to be traded off against the price of other EVs. The battery lease charge also increases the more miles per year you travel.
Factor in everyday running costs and the Fluence will be on par with a current diesel car costing around £1,300 a year to refuel for average mileage of around 10,000.
Leasing the Fluence rather than shelling out the best part of £18,000 to buy it outright may be a better option, although Renault has still to announce how much that is likely to be.
Recharging takes about eight hours from a domestic supply and should cost less than £3 for a theoretical range of 100 miles.
Real savings are available from reduced maintenance costs – 20 per cent less than a conventional car according to Renault – and tax exemptions.
The electric Fluence ZE is a conversion of a saloon Renault builds in Turkey but not sold in right hand drive form.
With the battery pack slotted behind the rear seats the car is some six inches longer than the conventional model and although it’s a sizeable vehicle boot space is only 317 litres – little more than a supermini.
Inside the Fluence is much more down to earth than most EVs with the dashboard nearly identical to that of a Megane.
The instrumentation, however, is very different comprising a battery charge gauge, power meter and speedo and a digital readout showing electrical performance and range.
The sat nav – which is Renault’s integrated TomTom system – had been update to show a plot of the car’s available range as well as the nearest roadside charging points.
On the road, as with other electric cars, the Fluence is great fun to drive. Because it is electric there are just two gears – forward and reverse – and the power delivery is instant and continuous.
The motor develops the equivalent of 95bhp and although instant acceleration is relatively rapid it does tail off as speed builds with 0 to 60 taking 13 seconds and the maximum being 85mph.
Air conditioning, cruise control, ESP and a full complement of airbags are standard and apart from its zero emission power train it is very similar to any other car.
The silent running gives the Fluence a surreal feel as it glides along and even at speed wind and road noise are low.
Motorway speeds and harsh acceleration suck up power and severely reduce the range but the Fluence comes into its own in city traffic.
On a full battery charge we drove 15 miles in heavy traffic through the middle of Lisbon in Portugal and still had 60 miles available range showing at the end of the run.
Renault expects the bulk of Fluence sales to go to fleet operators because of the car’s tax advantages for businesses.
To private buyers it may not be quite as attractive – although a bonus of Renault’s battery lease plan means the car can be sold on with a brand new power pack at no extra cost.
Along with the an electric Kangoo van and crew bus, the Fluence will be one of five EVs Renault is launching in the coming months with the French car maker predicting ambitious worldwide sales of 1.5million electric vehicles within the next four years.